


Just One Bite

by CarrierofHeartbreak



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Apocalypse, Bittersweet, Character Death, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Drama, Everyone is Dead, F/M, Major Original Character(s), Mild Gore, Romance, Sweet, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:21:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 54
Words: 221,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26672845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarrierofHeartbreak/pseuds/CarrierofHeartbreak
Summary: In the wake of a zombie apocalypse, only a few survivors remain unturned. Nick finds himself trapped in his own apartment and has to defend against his favorite undead bunny, who spends all hours of the day trying to find a way in to see him.She swears she'll just take a nibble.For realsies. Binky promise.
Relationships: Judy Hopps/Nick Wilde
Comments: 298
Kudos: 392





	1. Bite of the Living Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First chapter is short, but the others won't be all that much longer. This is going to be a lighter hearted comedic story I work on between Pelts chapters. Cover is by Rose Anon on Twitter (https://mobile.twitter.com/RoseAnon4)

The door slams shut behind him and he fumbles with the multitude of locks decorating it.

Nick’s breathing is harsh and quick, only further fueling his racing heart. His bag of canned goods rolls off of the spot he threw it and spills its contents onto the hardwood, the sound catching his attention and sending him into a panic.

He presses his back against the door and tries to catch his breath as he watches the last of the cans roll away from the point of impact.

“J-just the bag…” he mumbles to no one. He tries to laugh despite himself, but the sound dies in his throat as the scenes from the city around him flash back into his head.

Animals were dying everywhere.

Those...things were eating them!

But...why were monsters chatting so casually amongst each other as they chowed down?

If these things are zombies, then they’re not any kind of zombies he's heard of before. These ones still maintain their intelligence once they get back up. They die, they rise, they talk and they eat. One of those things does not belong!

The world has lost its mind.

And Judy…

She…

The sound of running outside his apartment door sends Nick spinning in a circle, trying to stay as far away from any sources of movement as he can. He stares at the door with wide eyes and waits in the terrible silence.

The only sound he can hear now is his heart trying to beat out of his chest.

He thinks that maybe the source of the noise has passed by. Maybe it was another resident of the apartment complex running for the safety of their home. Nick’s breathing starts to slow down.

But then-

THMP THMP THMP!

Nick almost throws up as the sound of someone pounding on his door reaches his ears. The knocking only grows in intensity as the seconds pass.

Then a voice he thought he would never hear again rings out.

“NICK!”

The fox’s heart drops as he recognizes the sound of his best friend’s voice coming from the other side of his door.

It can’t be her. It CAN’T be!

“Nick, please! They’re coming! Let me in!”

Fighting against his instincts to help her, Nick forces his paws over his ears and crouches down, trying to shut out the noise of his favorite bunny crying out for help. He tries clenching his eyes shut, but can see nothing but the smiling face of the optimistic rabbit flashing behind his eyelids.

“NICK! NICK, HELP!”

He’s in hell. This can’t be real. It’s a nightmare. It HAS to be!

“NO! NONONO AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH~!”

The sounds of violence break through the barrier of his paws.

He looks up at the door, the sounds of Judy’s agonizing wails burning themselves deep into his brain, destined to haunt him forever.

His eyes scan the door as the screaming stops. In its place, a loud chewing sound echoes across the walls of his room. But something is obviously out of place.

Slowly and with trembling legs, Nick stands back up. He moves a bit closer to the door, just so he can place his ear against the wood. Something becomes painfully obvious the moment he gets a better listen to what’s going on in the hallway.

He gives a great heaving sigh and bangs on the door.

“HEY! YOU’RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE WITH THOSE NOM NOM SOUNDS!”

“Yes I am! Oh...I mean, uhm...blood blooood blood?”

The exhausted fox collapses with his back against the door and slides the rest of the way down. On the other side, he can hear whoever is at his door scampering around doing...something.

“Nick! Can I come in?” her voice asks in a much more pleasant voice. He sees that she’s quick to give up on her ‘Save me!’ act.

“Why would I let you in?” Nick scoffs and crosses his legs to make himself a bit more comfortable. His movement draws some increased scampering just outside the door. It sounds like she’s scratching at the bottom of the door. What, does she think she can just DIG her way under the door?

“Uh, why wouldn’t you? We’re partners, remember?” she shoots back.

Nick’s temper starts to rise.

“No, JUDY is my partner. Whatever you are, whatever became of her...you’re not Judy. You’re just one of the monsters out there killing everyone you can get your rotten little paws on.”

A loud but less forceful thump hits the door.

Was that her head?

“Nick...I AM Judy…” Her voice is much more sullen now, sounding like she’s genuinely upset at his apparent lack of trust in her. A lightning bolt of pain shoots through Nick and his first thought is that he just hurt his best friend’s feelings.

But then he remembers why she’s doing this.

It’s what they do.

They use the bodies of the ones you love to get you.

“I want her back...give her back…” Nick whines, feeling his composure starting to fail him. The scratching sound comes back in full force.

“Stop that!” Nick barks.

“NO!”

“What are you even doing?! That’s so annoying!” The fox holds his ears back down against his head, trying to shut out the incessant scritching.

“Then open the door and I’ll stop!” she yells back, only increasing her efforts.

“If you were Judy, why would you want to get in here and kill me?!” Nick’s anger reaches a boiling point, offended at this creature’s use of his loved ones against him.

The scratching stops.

“I...don’t want to hurt you…I just want us to be partners again…” she whines.

“If I let you in here and you bit me like you’re obviously trying to do, I’d die. I’d die a slow, horrible death and I’d end up just as rotten as you!”

“Nick, I swear! It’s not as bad as you think! It’s actually pretty neat, not having to breathe and all. I ran the whole way here at a dead sprint and I’m not even tired!” she boasts.

“Forgive me for disagreeing, but I REALLY don’t find the idea of being a decaying corpse appealing in the slightest,” Nick spits. A loud groan of frustration comes from outside his door.

“You’re going to make me pull my ears off! Nick! Just...please, let me in.”

“No.”

“...Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“NO!”

“YES!”

“I’d sooner jump out my window than let you turn me into one of those things,” Nick’s tone lowers as he pulls his knees to his chest.

“Well, don’t do that. If you die like that, you won’t come back! I don’t want to lose my partner!”

Who does this zombie think she’s fooling?

“MY PARTNER IS DEAD! I saw her get flung around by that infected tiger! I tried to save her but I couldn’t! I couldn’t and now...now...she’s gone…”

Nick buries his face into his arms and sniffles, letting his emotions break through his mask. It’s just too much to bear. She was the one mammal who saw him for more than just a crooked thief and he let her get killed. It’s all his fault.

All his fault.

All his fault.

“...Hey, please don’t cry. I mean, yes, I am dead, but I’m not gone. I’m right here, right?”

“No, you’re not. You’re not Judy.”

“Yes! I! AM!”

“No.”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“...Yes!”

“NO! FOR THE LAST TIME, I’M NOT J-”

A small grin spreads across the fox’s face, parting the trails of tears staining his muzzle.

“Oooh, you sly fox.”

Her words hit Nick in the chest like a bullet and suddenly he’s seeing stars.

“...You...dumb bunny…”

They stay silent for the next few moments as it starts to sink in. This undead creature of nightmares is actually somehow Judy Hopps. His best friend and partner.

“...Hi, Carrots.”

“Hey yourself, Slick.” Her voice is one of relief in the fact that he finally accepted her true identity. Besides for the clicking of her jaws together, she almost sounds just like herself. If he closes his eyes, he can almost pretend that he didn’t see her eating the armadillo lady that she rents her apartment from.

“I’m still not letting you in.”

“NICHOLAS WILDE, YOU LET ME IN THIS ROOM OR I SWEAR-”


	2. Things That Go Thump in the Night

Night falls on the dying city.

Nick stares down at the scenes below him, not believing his eyes. Even though most of the mammals have been reduced to rotting husks of flesh and gore, they’re just...continuing on with their night.

Besides for the occasional scream of agony, most of the moving bodies down below are chatting amongst each other like it’s any other day. Friends walk with friends, even if a lot of them have to hobble around because of broken or missing limbs.

The lights are still lit and if the scent of death wasn’t lingering in the air like a cloud, Nick could have imagined this being a usual evening.

But it’s not. Apparently, this is the apocalypse.

Nick backs away from the other window and shuts the blinds just in case any of the undead creatures below were to somehow spot him. The last thing he needs is another corpse banging at his door.

Speaking of which…

“Nick Nick bo-Bick! Bonana fanna fo Fick! Fee fi mo Mick!”

“Judy!”

“NICK!”

“Stop! Just stop! You’ve been singing for five hours now!” Nick begs as he slams him head into the door multiple times, trying to drive the tune out of his head.

“You knoooow what I waaaant~” the insufferable rabbit sings back at him. Another slam on the door courtesy of Nick’s noggin startles the rabbit and sends her scampering in a small circle.

“And you know that you’re not getting it!” the fox whines. Judy scratches at the door some more.

“No! Not that either! Can’t you just behave yourself? The Judy I knew was never this annoying!”

“Really?” her voice asks tauntingly from the hallway. Nick groans and buries his face into his paws. A migraine is coming on and the last thing his needs is this rabbit pestering him to the point of insanity.

“I don’t know! I just...ugh!” He throws his arms on the air and flops back over his couch. A wave of exhaustion washes over him and he craves the sweet embrace of sleep. But he knows that if he passes out, he won’t be able to hear Judy coming if she manages to find a way in.

The visual of waking up and seeing a pair of zombie bunny chompers clamping into his flesh sends a cold chill running down his spine.

“Can you just be quiet? If you’re so insistent on hanging around, please just hush up for once,” the red fox begs. Judy stops her scratching and moves around a little outside the door.

“...Getting tired yet?” she asks in that sickeningly innocent voice of hers. A pit forms in Nick’s stomach as he realizes that this might have been her plan all along. Tire him out with annoying songs and scratching just to break in as he sleeps.

“N-no, I’m good. I, uh...got some sleep earlier.”

“When?”

“Umm...between the song about meat and the drum solo you did on the door,” Nick fibs poorly, not awake enough to come up with anything good.

“...But that means you missed most of my songs! You jerk! I had to come up with those myself!” Judy pouts and thumps her bunny foot quickly in frustration.

“What do you want me to say? Sorry? You’re trying to eat me! How am I the bad guy in this scenario?”

“I don’t want to eat you! I swear, I just want a nibble!” Judy argues, not realizing that she’s defeating her own point.

“Why me?” Nick asks, catching the zombunny off guard. She stutters bashfully and a slight scraping can be heard coming from the floor outside.

“What do you-“

“Why. Me? It’s obvious I’m not going to let you in. Why are you even still here? Why can’t you just go look for your food somewhere else? You said you ran all the way here, right? Why couldn’t you have just gone after someone else after you finished munching your landlady?”

A small squeak emanates from beyond the door.

“You...saw that…?” Judy asks, her tone barely masking how vulnerable she is. Another shot of pain runs through Nick’s chest.

“Where do you think I went when you first took off running? I followed you...or I tried to, at least. Didn’t catch up until I got to your apartment and, well…” Nick lets his silence finish his sentence for him.

Judy is quiet for a good amount of time after that. Nick thought he wanted the silence, but now that he has it, he’d much rather hear her singing or talking in her usual bubbly voice. At least then, he would know that she is happy. Judy might be a flesh-eating husk now, but she’s still his bun.

“I’m sorry you saw me like that…” Judy finally says, breaking the tension. The fox’s shoulders slump.

“If you guys are all basically the same as before mentally, then why do you eat us?” he questions weakly. Nothing is making sense in the world and fate just seems to enjoy watching him squirm under its new policies.

“...When I first woke up, I wasn’t myself. The only thing I could think of was food and I ran to the first mammal I knew I wanted…”

“Your landlady the armadillo?”

Silence.

More silence.

“Carrots, I can’t see if you’re nodding. Use your words girl,” Nick sighs, though a tiny smirk forms on his muzzle. Same old silly bunny.

“Oh! Right, sorry. Yeah, my landlady,” she replies with an embarrassed giggle.

“Why her?”

“She charged me a hundred bucks for a new room key!” Judy exclaimed. The fox leaned back at this revelation, trying his best not to burst out laughing despite the dark nature of it all.

“She overcharged you so you ate her?”

“Yeah!”

“Ooookay. A bit over the line but I admire your enthusiasm,” Nick chuckles as he rubs his eyes with the back of his paws to wake himself back up.

“Thank you!” He can feel her beaming through the door. She always casts such a happy little shadow on his life, doesn’t she?

If only she didn’t reek of dead animal.

“So you ate her and then ran straight over here?” Nick asked. If that was the case, she was only a few seconds behind him the entire time and he didn’t even see her. She could have sunk her teeth into him from behind and he would have been a goner.

“So...when I first woke up, I wasn’t myself. I was just hungry and mad. But once I ate, I felt fine. Better than normal, even! Then I got this really strong urge to come find you. So...here I am, I guess,” she explains. Nick listens along, trying to form a visual in his head of the timeline.

“But that leads back to my question, then...why me?” Nick asks again. She takes a while to think of what her answer should be.

“I think...I wanted to be the one to do it,” she says slowly, like she’s also trying to explain it to herself. Nick’s head tilts even if she can’t see it.

“Do what?”

“You know...turn you.”

Nick takes a dry swallow and shivers.

“I mean, it’s going to happen to everyone, right? Maybe I felt that it’s something the two of us can go through together. And like I said, it’s actually a pretty cool feeling.”

“Judy…”

“No no, I mean it! When I died, I was scared too. But then the pain went away and I just sort of...woke back up again. And once I ate, I was more energized than I’d ever been while I was alive. It’s amazing, Nick! Plus, if I just gave you a tiny bite, you would turn with most of your body intact. A lot of mammals have to deal with missing parts of their bodies and it makes it harder for them to get around.”

That makes a bit of sen-Hey, wait a minute!

“Carrots, what if the living come back and fight? What if you turn me and then tomorrow we get wiped out by the military anyway? What if we just rot away into nothing?” Nick asks, his voice lower and more serious than it had been.

“Well...then...we rot away as partners, I suppose.”

The only functioning heart in the apartment complex skips a beat.

Nick curses the bunny’s ability to get under his skin, even if it’s not literally...yet.

But he can’t fight the warmth that spreads through his body. Out of all the mammals she could be spending the end of days with, she’s choosing him.

A fluttering feeling passed through him and is only quelled by a particularly nasty death scream echoing from outside.

“I...don’t know…” Nick mumbles. He idly rubs his head, trying to coax some functioning thoughts out of himself. Is there any way out of this? Is he just fighting the inevitable? Would it really be so bad, getting to spend the apocalypse with her?

Judy sighs from the other side of the door and scrapes her feet along the ground.

“Listen...I know you’re tired, and I have a night shift anyway, sooo...think about it? Please?”

Nick does a mental double-take.

“Wait, what? What do you mean night shift?”

Judy chuckles.

“It might be the end of the world Nick, but I still want to help make it a better place. Got a message from Pogo...I mean Bogo...snrt…saying that they need me for tonight.”

“Bogo said this? How’s he doing?”

“Oh, you know, he’s...getting around...pfft...ahaaanyway, I’ll let you get some sleep. Just make sure you keep your doors and windows locked. If you let someone else turn you, I swear, no more nice bunny.”

With that final word, Nick listens to the sound of her small paws echoing back down the hallway from where she originally came.

Nick is left alone with nothing but his thoughts and the sounds of broken chatter from the undead below.

What should he do?

If he lets her bite him, he’ll die and rot.

But if he doesn’t, he might not even get the chance to rot alongside her. There’s no right answer in this decision, but he can already feel which one makes his heart tingle.

He can’t hide away in this room forever. Eventually he’ll need to leave when his resources run out. He has until starvation to come up with a decision. But will it even take that long?

The sound of the doorknob jiggling catches his attention and he sits up from his makeshift bed on the couch.

A muffled curse can faintly be heard.

“It’s still locked!”

“I-I know, I know! Just...checking...juuuuust checking...heh…” Judy’s voice comes echoing back at him.

She scampers off, this time for real.

Silly bun.

She’s going to be the death of him. Probably  
sometime soon.

Nick gets up and wedges a chair under the doorknob just to be safe.


	3. The Call of the Wilde

Nick is awoken from his slumber by a commotion happening beneath his chin. The sleepy tod blinks, trying to remove the crust from his eyes. His mind rushes to catch him up to the events surrounding him.

The second that he remembers that he’s in the middle of an apocalypse, he tries to sit up but finds himself unable to.

A dull ache comes from the flurry of motion looming below his vision.

He looks down and his heart stops.

A tall, familiar set of ears sway hastily in his face, threatening to smack him. But she’s not looking up at him.

Judy’s attention is focused solely on the hole in his chest, where numerous innards lay scattered around for her to feast on.

He feels another forceful tug as the rabbit sticks her entire face into the hole and latches onto some piece of him, her teeth getting to work mashing the organ into smaller chunks.

Nick, as pale as a ghost at the sight of his entrails being devoured by his best friend, can only gape. Why doesn’t this hurt more than it does? Shouldn’t this be agonizing? All he can feel is a faint soreness coming from the area.

“Judy…?” Nick whispers, a sense of betrayal washing over him. The bunny in question finally looks up.

Her face is soaked with thick red liquid, small chunks of unknown viscera leaking down her lips. But despite this, she gives him the same bright smile she always does.

She opens her mouth to say something, but the only sound that comes out is a very familiar buzzing.

Nick blinks. What is-?

The blood-covered bunny continues buzzing at him until the source of the noise registers in his mind, snapping him awake.

***

Nick’s eyes spring open for real and his body instinctively shoots up into a state of alertness. His ears act as radars, trying to take in any possible sounds of impending danger. But there’s nothing in the room with him.

It’s still dark out. There’s some faint whooping and cheering coming from the city below. Nick doesn’t even want to think about what would make a zombie cheer.

The door to his room is still locked tight and the chair hasn’t been disturbed.

He’s safe. For now.

The tired fox sighs and leans back into the warm spot he had been working on while asleep. But something tingles his thigh and he finally notices that the buzzing hasn’t stopped. The same noise that had been coming from Judy now sings its annoying tune from his pocket.

He reaches into the storage slot of his pants and tugs his phone out. The electronic device continues to sing its song in Nick’s paw.

The fox stares at it with wide eyes, the name of the caller burning itself into his mind.

Mom.

With a trembling grip, Nick slides his pad across the screen and answers. It takes him a few tense moments to actually lift the phone to the side of his head. The voice that comes from the other line makes his blood run cold.

“Nicky? Nicky, are you there?” his mother’s voice asks him urgently. How could he have forgotten his own mother? When the world went crazy, the only other animal he could worry about was Judy.

“Mom?” Nick answers in barely a whisper.

“Nicky! Oh thank goodness! I’ve been texting you for hours! Where have you been?” she frets into his ear.

“I’m held up in my apartment and- mom, do you know what’s going on?”

“Of course, of course!”

“And...how are you?” Nick asks in a pleading voice.

“Oh, I’m fine sweetie,” she assures. Nick’s entire body relaxes and he lets out a massive sigh of relief.

“Thank you…” he says to no one.

“So how are you holding together Nicky?” her familiar voice asks sweetly. Nick lets out a tired chuckle, trying to ignore the fact that the dead are walking the streets below his window.

“Still breathing, so I got that going for me at least,” he laughs. His mother goes strangely quiet at these words. A pit starts to form in his gut at her unusual behavior.

“Nicholas, MuzzleTime me. Right now,” she demands. From her end of the call, some shuffling can be heard, most likely from the phone being adjusted in her paws.

The alert pops up on Nick’s phone, asking if he wants to accept the invite to the camera chat. He hesitantly clicks Yes and nearly drops the phone when he sees what awaits him on the other end.

He wants to cry but the tears refuse to run. He wants to scream but the sound won’t come out. The only thing he can do is stare at what has become of his mother.

Instead of the beautiful, loving eyes he was so used to, a pair of empty sockets gaze back into his very soul. One of her ears is missing and the top of her head has a chunk torn out of it. It despite her monstrous appearance, he can still tell that it’s her.

His mother is one of them now.

Her muzzle bumps the camera as she tries to get into position. It seems like she’s trying to get a good look at him, but forgets about a very important pair of organs she’s missing.

“Shoot...honey, can you tell me what Nicky looks like? I’m a bit eyeless at the moment,” she says to someone else offscreen. Who is with her? Why is she calling them honey?

The face of a complete stranger pops up into the MuzzleTime screen, his wide eyes taking in every inch of Nick’s apparance. He’s another red fox, like Nick and his mother, but as far as he knows, Nick has never met this tod before in his life.

“Huh, that’s weird. Looks like your boy’s still got a pulse!” the fox says as he looks in the direction of Nick’s mother.

“That’s what I was afraid of! Oooh Nicky! Why are you still fighting this? I know you’ve always wanted to be on your own, being your own fox, but...why? Don’t you know how happy you’ll be if you just accept this?”

“Mom...I don’t want eating other mammals to make me happy,” Nick says carefully. He doesn’t want to upset his mother, after all he put her through over the years.

If she still had her eyes, she’d be rolling them right now. She lets out a huff and scrunches her blood-stained muzzle a bit.

“We ate things that were once alive all the time, Nicky. This isn’t much different. Also, that’s not the kind of happiness I’m talking about. Being like this is just...it’s so nice, sweetie. I’m happy, everyone around me is happy and nobody is at each others’ throats anymore. Well, not in the metaphorical sense. Everyone’s in the same boat now, and it seems the world may have finally found its peace.”

Nick listens, but is partially distracted by the fact that the other fox there with his mother is actually just the head of a fox. His head is actually in great shape for a zombie, but that comes at the cost of missing the rest of his body. Nick’s mother has to hold his head and turn it toward whatever they're trying to see.

“Uhh, mom? Who is that?” Nick says once his mother finishes her little speech. She turns her face towards the head in her paw and the head gives her a tiny smooch.

Nick’s eyes widen.

“Oho! Where are my manners, today? Nicky, this is Corduroy! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was seeing anyone new, but it was rather sudden, really,” she explains with a smile on her muzzle. A chunk of something falls out of her teeth. Nick has to suppress his urge to vomit.

Corduroy smiles pleasantly as he's pressed against the chest of the fox holding him.

“So you’re...together, then?” Nick says out loud, more to himself than to them. His mother presses her cheek to the cheek of the fox head and they share a nuzzle.

“Yep yep! He’s my eyes, ears and what’s left of my heart!” she sings happily. Corduroy’s cheeks turn a brighter shade of grey and he gives a few embarrassed chuckles.

“That’s...great, actually. Glad to see that you're happy, mom,” Nick says honestly. A feeling of longing wells up in his chest as he watches the two lovebirds shower each other in as much affection as two corpses possibly can.

His mother’s empty eyes turn towards the camera again.

“Oh! By the way, I saw your father,” she says out of nowhere with no buildup whatsoever. Nick nearly falls off the couch. His father was the last topic he expected her to bring up in the middle of the apocalypse. After the things that his father did to her before he walked out, he was certain she would never want to think about him again.

“Oh...yeah?” Nick stutters. His mother gives him a wide smile, baring her gore-covered teeth for him to see.

“He said ‘Hi.’ Well, kind of. It was more like a ‘hhhhiiiiieeelp meeeeee’ but I think I might have heard a Hi in there somewhere!”

The lovely couple share a pleasant laugh over the descriptions of Nick’s father getting devoured alive. Nick lets out a nervous chuckle but doesn’t really see the humor in it. Cosmic irony, maybe, but little humor.

At least she’s happy. 

At least she’s happy.

“What about that bunny you’re always telling me about? Is she there with you? You two roughing it out for the time being?” His mother's voice breaks through the laughter and drags his mood straight to the ground.

Why can’t he feel what they’re feeling? That closeness, togetherness...love.

“No…” he says weakly. His mother’s empty gaze morphs into one of concern and sympathy. Even Corduroy seems a bit put out by the news.

“Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry. I know it can’t be easy, being separated like that...but...you know exactly what would fix that.” Nick looks deeply into the black holes in his mother’s head.

“...I’m scared,” Nick admits, wrapping his arms around himself supportively. He really needs a hug from someone who won’t tear into his neck. His mother hums thoughtfully.

“You could always just have Judy do it if you’re frightened. It’s a lot easier going into the dark when you got someone there to show you the way,” she says, a sliver of her normal wisdom trying to shine through. Corduroy beams at this.

“She won’t leave me alone. She says that she wants to be the one to turn me but I don’t know if…”

He’s cut off by the two foxes on the other side of the call letting out high pitched ‘Eeee’ sounds. Nick quickly turns the sound on his phone down, just in case any husks might be lingering around the hallways.

“My little Nicky finally got claimed!” his mother cheers and dances in place. She swings Corduroy around, who can’t dance on his own so has to whoop and follow along with her movements.

“What? Claimed...claimed what?”

“Ooooh Nicky! I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this day! It seemed like you just wanted to keep to yourself forever, but here you are! You finally found someone and all it took was the end of the world!”

She’s laughing now so he can tell part of her joy is purposely at his expense. His face burns hot as he tries to process what his mother screamed into his ear.

Claimed?

Is that what Judy is doing?

Did she claim him?

But that can’t be right...she’s his partner. Plus, with how many animals are being infected, there’s no possible way that they’re all because of some sort of claiming ritual. Most of the deaths he’s seen were just random hunger followed by violent ripping.

“I...I don’t…” Nick stutters.

“It’s so romantic! Turning for the one you love! It’s like Moleo and Shrewliet if they both came back after they died!”

Nick is sensing that she’s gone off and lost herself in her own little world again. At least he knows for sure that it’s actually her.

“Okay, mom, got to go, we’re not together, BYE!” Nick stammers and goes to end the call.

“W-wai!”- Booboop

The screen goes black, leaving the upset tod looking at his own reflection. He can’t help but compare his face to that of his mother’s. He has all of his skin and blood intact. His mother was missing both her eyes and several other chunks. Corduroy was missing his entire body. So why is it then that the reflection in the phone looks back with such a miserable expression?

Surely, the one left alive should be the happy one. Apparently, in this new world of chaos, up is in, down is over and left is blue.

It doesn’t make sense. But maybe it doesn’t need to. They’re happy with the way they are now and Nick is admittedly happy for them too. He hadn’t seen his mother smile like that in ages.

He just wished he didn’t have to see the remains of his father dripping from her grin.

The phone lights back up with another call request. He goes to silence it for the rest of the night until he sees that it’s Judy calling this time.

His heart beats a little faster, but it’s no longer in fear or apprehension. Nick is just happy to be reminded that even after dying, she’s still around. In a way, she never really left.

She just changed a little.

And got stinky.

He swipes the screen to answer the call and places the phone back up to his ear.

“Nick! Are you okay?” Judy sounds a bit winded, even though she apparently doesn’t need to breathe anymore.

“Yeah? What’s up, fluff?” he responds a lot more casually than he would have before. His warmer tone towards her seems to catch her by surprise and she takes a few more moments to reply.

“Uuuuhm...nothing, just saw that you were online. Thought you were supposed to be sleeping, so I was worried. Had to make sure my favorite fox wasn’t trying to call for help or something, right?”

Another wave of warmth.

“Yeah,” Nick agrees, thankful that she can’t see the bashful grin on his face.

“Mmkay. So why are you awake, then? Couldn’t sleep?”

The memory of his nightmare flashes back into his head, making him flinch. She doesn’t need to know about that, it would only make her feel bad.

“Nope, my mom called me and woke me up,” he replied. It’s technically the truth, the nightmare isn’t what startled him awake, it was the ringtone.

“Your mom? Huh! Mm...how is she…?” By the way she’s asking, Nick can tell she’s being careful with her words, as to not upset him.

“She turned, if that’s what you’re asking,” he says calmly. He can practically hear the cringe coming through the call.

“I’m sorry, Nick, I didn’t mean to…”

“No, it’s okay. She’s pretty happy, actually. Even met someone nice in the middle of all of this.”

Judy chokes on the remainder of her tongue.

“R-really? Wow! Who is he?”

“Ohh, no body you would know, I’m sure. But he makes her happy and that’s all that matters to me,” Nick says. His pleasant tone throughout the whole call has apparently broken Judy. Despite her usually being the one to render Nick speechless, this time it’s her who is stunned into silence.

“Good...well, uhm...just wanted to check in on you. Miss you here at work, by the way. Just brought in a badger who tried to steal the wallet of a sheep he turned. We had to wait for the sheep to finish turning so we could return the wallet.”

Nick stares at the far wall, unsure of how to feel about that.

“G-good work. Miss you too, by the way.”

“Hope to see you at work soon!” she cheerfully declares before hanging up on her end.

To go back to work, he would have to…

Another call?

Nick swipes the screen without checking the identity. There’s nobody on the other end at first, just a faint, ragged breathing. 

Then a voice speaks up.

“I’m coming for you, Wilde. Don’t try running. I’ve been waiting for my chance to pay you back for what you did, and there’s no better time than the end of the world. Just sit tight.”

Nick’s brows crease at the very obvious attempt to fake a deep voice. The owner of the voice very obviously speaks in a very high pitched, squeaky tone. And who would have a vengeance against him at this hour?

“Hold on...Bellwether?”

“Oh mutton chops!”

Booboop

...What in the world?

Another call.

Nick swipes before the first note of the ringtone can finish.

“What?!”

“YEAH I’LL HAVE UHHHH BONELESS-.”

Nick yelps and throws the phone down as an overly loud, heavily distorted voice plunges itself deep into his head. The voice continues ordering it’s strange meal even without Nick on the other end.

Nick can do nothing but stare at the ceiling with both of his paws rubbing his head.

The world has fallen to chaos.

Absolute chaos.

Why does everyone have his number?!


	4. Something Fennec This Way Comes

The little sleep that Nick got is finally ended by a ray of morning sun shining into his eye. For him, it’s a much more pleasant, natural way to wake up than the calls that had plagued him during the night.

In the morning hours of Zootopia, everything seems deceptively peaceful. There aren’t anymore screams coming from outside and the smoke from the fires has finally died down.

A calm chatter can be heard coming from outside his window, sounding no different than the usual morning crowd walking the streets.

Nick lays there for a while, just trying to imagine that everything is back to normal again.

That the dead aren’t the ones shuffling around in the city below.

They might be decaying husks now, but they sound like they’re in good enough spirits.

As far as Nick can tell, everyone who has turned has so far enjoyed the change. Nobody’s upset once they’re among the dead. What is it that makes them so damn accepting of their deaths?

It’s like they don’t even mind that they’re missing parts of their bodies. Nick can’t imagine being okay with missing multiple parts of himself. And poor Corduroy is just a severed head! He can’t move at all without someone else carrying him!

A shiver passes down Nick’s spine and he wraps his blanket a little tighter around himself.

He listens to his own heartbeat for a long time, trying to imagine what it would be like if the organ simply...stopped. What does it feel like to have your blood stop pumping? Why do they seem to enjoy it so much?

Each breath that the fox takes is one more than the rest of his friends and family. He’s alive and they don’t get to be anymore.

So why does he feel like the one that is being left out?

His life is over whether or not he accepts Judy’s request. The world ended and he didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.

Does he want to bother joining the new world?

A metallic banging noise disrupts him from his thoughts and sends him bolting to his paws, ready to flee. The panicked fox spins around, trying to locate the source of the disturbance.

It’s not the door. It didn’t sound like wood.

It wasn’t his window, he was staring out of it when the sound occurred.

The piercing noise fills the room a second time and Nick’s ears are drawn to an area on the wall, close to the floor.

He takes a nervous gulp and slides his way closer to investigate. He can hear a shuffling come from a metal vent cover.

His blood runs cold.

Something’s trying to get in.

The only thing preventing it from doing so is the slotted grate of metal.

If it gets in, he has nowhere to go. It’s already here and it would take Nick far too long to undo all of the locks on his door. The fire escape outside the window might work, but it’s daylight now and all he would be doing would be exposing himself for the undead below to see.

Nick accidentally takes an audible, shuddering breath and the sound stops.

The silence that follows casts the fox in a cloud of tension.

“...Meow,” says the all-too-familiar voice of his favorite undead bunny from behind the vent.

Nick lets out a massive breath and slinks to the floor in a trembling heap.

“For the love of...Judy, are you TRYING to give me a heart attack?” Nick groans as his face reclaims it’s home, buried in his paws. She moves around inside the vent some more, banging her head a couple times as she turns herself around.

“Of course not! I was just...inspecting your central air! You know how it gets around here, don’t want to have you roasting in this heat, after all! Is that any better?” she mumbles through her shame.

“I don’t know, Judy. It smells like something crawled in there and died. Might want to take another look,” Nick says flatly.

“Really? I didn’t see anything...hey, are you saying I stink?!”

Nick smirks, the bunny’s silly nature brightening his morning. She might be dead, but Judy will always be the most amusing thing to him.

“Judy, you’re a corpse. Of course you stink,” Nick chuckles. He can feel her glare through the vent.

“Okay, well...you don’t have to say it,” she whines.

“...Uugghh...what am I going to do with you?”

“Oh, you can let-,”

“I’m not letting you in.”

“...Have you thought about it at all?” she asks, her voice lowering to a soft whisper.

The fox sighs and rubs his eyes again.

“Yes, I have. No, I don’t know yet. But...if you had actually gotten through the vent, my decision wouldn’t have mattered, would it? You would have just gone for the kill regardless of what I wanted.”

Judy has the words kicked out of her and doesn’t respond for quite a while. When she finally does, it’s in the same sorrowful, broken tone she used when she apologized to him for the Nighthowler conference.

“I’m...snf...I’m sorry, Nick…it’s just so hard! I have this constant overwhelming urge to share this with you, and I haven’t seen you since this all started and I...I’m sorry if I made you feel like I didn’t care about your decision. I know you don’t trust me right now and I don’t blame you. I just really miss you…”

Her sniffling and trembling voice are too much for Nick. How is he supposed to listen to this and stay mad at her? His life might be on the line, but he isn’t ready to sacrifice his friendship.

“It’s okay, Carrots...just please, let me make this choice by myself. It’s important.”

“Okay...hic...I’ll just make my way back out of the vent, now,” she agrees. He hates hearing her sound so down.

“You can hang out by the door again.”

“Really! Okay!”

“IF. You promise to stop singing and drumming,” he warns. Judy is quiet for a few more seconds, weighing her options.

“Okay…” she finally concedes.

“...And don’t try the air vent again, please. The whole room stinks like you now!”

Another hidden yet obvious glare.

“You know, you don’t keep your sense of smell when you turn. If my smell bothers you so much, I have the perfect thing in mind.”

Nick flinches and takes a few steps away from the vent just in case.

“Okay, okay, kidding! Just...kidding…” Nick laughs nervously. Judy gives an indignant huff and scurries her way back up the air vent. He can hear her in the walls for a few more seconds before he loses her location.

A second chair realized its purpose of blocking a possible Judy entrance.

He sighs again and lets his shoulders droop.

Why can’t things just go back to the way they were? 

He doesn’t like having to bum his best friend out. But if the only thing she wants is to end his life, what choice does he have?

The only choice left

Nick shakes his head, trying to clear the offending thought from it. He’s not ready to give up on life just yet. He doesn’t want to die!

But if he doesn’t, he’ll never be able to see Judy again. Or his mother. Or any of the friends he’s made.

The only one he might be able to fall back on is-

TAP TAP TAP

Nick yelps and jumps back from the source of the sound. Instead of wood or metal being struck, this time it’s glass.

He turns to the window.

Despite the morning sun doing its job of illuminating the fire escape just outside his window, he can’t see any signs of movement. Was he just imagining it that time? Is his paranoia finally getting to him?

It couldn’t have been Judy. She’s fast, but even zombie bunnies can’t teleport. His BBF is probably still making her way back through the maze of duct work.

“YO NICK!” shouts a voice from just outside his apartment. Nick freezes as a feeling of recognition washes over him. He knows that voice. It’s a voice so deep that it rattles the glass. And the mammal’s identity also explains why Nick is unable to see him.

He’s too short.

The very tip of a knuckle struggles to reach the glass. It taps the window again, this time with more urgency. The very tips of a pair of humongous ears pass by his vision. They are quickly obscured by the wall of the building.

“Finn?” Nick calls out in disbelief.

The ears perk up.

“Oh geez, Finn!” Nick runs to the window and starts to unlock it, but something in the very corner of his vision startles him back onto his rump.

He slides back until his shoulders hit drywall.

“No…” Nick whines as the body of a small fox leaps up into the frame of his window. Two giant, tattered ears hang loosely at his side, chunks torn out of them haphazardly. It’s like two leaves got munched on by a pair of very hungry caterpillars.

Even through the glare of the sun, Nick can see every detail of the diminutive fennec. His fur is falling out in patches. One of his eyes is rolled back up into his head. A greasy red stain is soaking through the bottom of his usually well-kept hoodie.

But considering what Nick has seen so far, Finnick isn’t actually all that bad. The most damage is done to his ears and those are just flat flabs of skin and cartilage anyway.

“NICK!” Finn booms from behind the closed plane of glass, his blood-soaked paws trying desperately to tug the window open.

Nick sees the window actually open a tiny bit before slamming closed again. The zombified fennec positions himself to try again.

The locks!

Like a bolt of red lightning, Nick leaps from his spot on the floor and slams his body weight onto the bottom of the window just as it starts to open.

“HEY!” barks Finnick angrily. Nick’s paws get to work resetting all of the locks, despite the curses coming from the husk on the other side of the glass.

The second Nick finishes clicking the final lock shut, the balled fist of the furious fennec pounds into the glass and sends Nick scurrying away to the safety of his couch.

Finn tries to open the window again, but it doesn’t budge. He tries punching the glass again, but it’s too heavy and thick for him to damage.

“NICK! OPEN UP AND I’LL BITE YOUR FACE OFF!” he fumes. Down below in the streets, the rest of the undead crowd goes strangely quiet.

“Don’t you mean ‘Or’ you’ll bite my face off?” Nick asks, smiling nervously.

“NO!”

This time he gives the glass a tiny kick, only succeeding in knocking himself backwards.

An enormous string of curses erupts from his oozing mouth and he takes a few moments to have his tantrum.

Apparently his vocabulary isn’t much appreciated by the husks below.

“Hey! Watch your language! There are dead kits down here and the last thing I need is them trying to replicate your rotten mouth!” comes a voice from the onlookers.

Nick watches as Fennec rolls to the edge of the fire escape platform and leans his head over the side.

“MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, YOU SORRY SACK OF MEAT!” he belts. A few gasps of horror ring out at his usage of what must be one of the new derogatory terms.

A boot soars up and narrowly misses Finn’s tattered ear. It plops down on the metal floor next to him and he’s quick to whip it back down onto the onlookers.

Where did they get a boot? Barely anyone wears boots anymore.

A distant thwack is heard, followed by several angry shouts.

“My baby!” 

Finn bursts into laughter, having to hold his guts in as his deep voice bellows in sharp gasps. The boisterous laughter turns into a wet, hacking cough that concludes with Finnick up-chucking a wet ball of flesh.

Is that his liver?

Finn stares at the organ with little emotion before shrugging and tossing it over the rails. A few seconds later, a wet splat echoes out from the same area as the boot had fallen.

”My other baby!” 

This gets another evil chuckle out of the smaller fox. Nick watches this all happen with a tilted head, unsure of how to process any of it.

Yep, that’s definitely his partner in crime.

“So I see you’re...still you,” Nick says, trying to break the ice. The giant ears of the tiny fox swivel in his direction, a chunk actually getting enough momentum to fly off entirely.

“...Why you still breathin’?” Finns asks incredulously. Nick sighs and scoots a chair over to the window to chat.

Might as well, there’s nothing better to do, other than starve.

Or seal the deal with Judy

He shakes his head again. The thought goes away but leaves behind some emotional residue for him to chew on.

“Haven’t had my fill of living yet, it seems,” Nick exhales and crosses his one leg over the other. Finn takes the hint and finds a spot on the nearby railing to balance himself.

Finn takes a long, hard look at his friend.

“So whatcha waitin’ for? You scared?” Finn asks abrasively. Nick narrows his gaze and leans back in his chair.

“What, you here to tell me how great being a dead body is? Got some pamphlets I can read about the wonders of decomposing? Because if you’re just here to bother me, I can-.”

“Nah, fam. This kinda sucks,” Finn says casually as he chews on...something. Oh, please don’t let that be something else that he coughed up.

Wait, what?

That’s different.

Out of everyone so far, Finn is the first to express displeasure in his turning. Nick is stunned silent and can do nothing but stare at his friend.

“...What? Got something on my face?” the fennec asks as he reaches a paw up to his cheek and digs under the skin. He pulls out a juicy-looking bug of some kind and stuffs it into his mouth.

“‘Preciate it.”

Nick swallows his mouthful of stomach acid before it can come flying out onto the window.

“So...you don’t like being a zombie?” Nick manages to ask once his gag reflex stops going crazy.

“HELL NO! Well, I mean...it’s not the worst. But I definitely preferred being alive.”

“What do you miss about living?”

Finn eyes Nick carefully.

“This isn’t one of those times where I’m supposed to tell you not to jump, is it?” the smaller fox asks suspiciously.

“What the- No! I’m just asking because all of the animals I’ve talked to so far have said how happy being turned made them!” Nick argues.

Finn shifts his position and shrugs his shoulders.

“Really depends on who you ask. Who have you asked, anyway? You been in contact with some deadies?”

“Just Judy, my mom, and her new boyfriend.”

“No kidding? Mrs. Wilde is taken? Shoot, man, I should have known turning would finally change her mind about testing the waters again. Sucks, I would have tried my luck.”

Nick gapes at his friend.

“Finn, that’s my mother you’re talking about! She’s practically yours too! She raised us!” he exclaims in an animated fashion. Finn watches his wild arm motions with a mischievous smirk.

“Just messing with ya, Nick. I’m taken now, anyway.”

Nick shuts up.

“...You’re still kidding, aren’t you?”

“Nah, not this time.”

“So who is she?”

Finnick squirms a bit, sliding the bottom of his blood-stained hoodie over his knees to hide his bottom half.

“Arctic girl. Really pretty and really nice. Tall, too. She’s got these legs that I can climb for days!”

Classic Finn.

Nick rests his head on his fist and leans slightly forward.

“How did that happen?”

“Well, it’s actually how I turned, ya see. Met her at a bar when this was all starting. Didn’t know about the infection yet. Apparently she was one of the early ones that caught it, didn’t get mauled when she died. Sooo she was looking really pretty for a corpse and I couldn’t tell anything was up. She tried to warn me, but I laid the ol’ Finnick charm on a bit too thick and got myself in pretty deep.”

Nick’s on the edge of his seat, waiting for the rest of the details.

Finnick falters and goes quiet.

“What happened?” Nick asks, scooting the chair a bit closer to the window.

“She…”

“Yes?”

“She bit it off.”

Suddenly the way that Finnick is covering his hips with his hoodie makes more sense. It also explains the blood on the bottom.

“No way…”

“Nick, I wouldn't lie about something like this. She didn’t mean to, but I guess she got a taste and went for it. Apologized like hell but it was too late.”

“So that’s how you died?” Nick asks, any feelings of mourning overshadowed by his revulsion at how his friend suffered.

“Nooooot exactly…”

Silence falls between them.

“Well, go on! Do tell! You’ve gotten this far, might as well go all the way!” Nick urges. Finnick sighs and buries his rotten face into his paws.

“Ugh. Fine. But you owe me a bite. Anyway, when I felt what she did, I flipped my lid. Yelled, cursed, made her cry and bled everywhere. I ran out, blood draining out of me like crazy. Bunch of deadies took turns taking bites out of my ears as I ran by and then…”

“Then…?”

“Ran into a pole and cracked my skull,” he finally says while pointing a claw to his droopy eye. With the truth out, Nick leans back in his chair and takes a massive breath.

“You laugh and I’ll swear I’ll destroy everything but your brain. You’ll be like a rolling tumbleweed of meat with some grey matter in the middle,” Finn warns grumpily.

Well...that’s definitely an image.

“Okay, okay…” Nick submits, holding his paws up as a sign of good humor. Finn huffs and looks away, his good eye glaring at the city below them.

“So you got together with the vixen who...you know,” Nick asks cautiously.

“Well...yeah. She didn’t mean nothing by it and I totally get it now that I’m like her. It’s not like I have the blood flow to use it anyway.”

“I guess that makes sense, in a weird kind of way.”

Finn nods and spits the hunk of whatever was in his mouth over the side of the fire escape.

Splat

“My third baby!”

“DAMN LADY, MOVE YOUR BRATS!” Finn yells back down at her.

Nick can’t help the chuckle that slips out. Luckily, his feisty friend doesn’t seem to care.

“What brings you out this way, anyway? Can’t have been to turn me. You were surprised to see I was still alive, after all.”

Finn turns his gaze away from the horizon and gives his friend a more sincere look.

“Do you remember when we were kits? That night we got drunk for the first time?” Finn asks in a sober tone. Nick looks past his friend, letting himself reminisce about a time long ago. Everything was so much less bloody back then.

“Yeah, I remember. Grabbed a case from Old Man Bruno’s store and ran like hell. Finished the whole thing that night, didn’t we?” Nick laughs.

Finn smirks, his ears flopping behind his body lazily. Only those close to Finn know that his floppy ears are a sign of relaxation for him.

“Yeah, yeah! Man, we pounded those things back and thought we were the kings of the world! We acted so drunk, ha! Stumbling around and getting poetic and crap. But we didn’t know it was-.”

“Non-alcoholic beer,” they both say at the same time and descend into more nostalgic laughter.

The moment passes when Finn’s messed up eye pops out of its socket and dangles there while he laughs. Nick goes silent until the fennec manages to wrestle the organ back into place.

“Woo! Heh...but do you remember what we said when we were stomping around thinking we were blacked out?” Finn asks, his voice lowering to a more acceptable level.

Nick tries to think, but it was so long ago that he can’t quite recall.

“We said that we’d be brothers until the end of the world.”

Nick stares at his fallen friend, a feeling of sincerity tingling down his neck. Very rarely did Finn ever show a softer side to himself, and when he did, Nick knew enough to take him seriously.

“I remember that, now that you mention it.”

Finn reaches into his hoodie pocket and pulls out two unopened cans of Meadowbrooke Brew.

“Well, here it is. The end of the world. And I just wanted to make sure that we could stay brothers. You know...since the pact is technically up, and all.”

Finn doesn’t look at Nick as he sets the beer down on the window’s ledge. But he doesn’t go to open his either. Nick realizes with a creeping fear that he wants him to open the window.

The window right next to the corpse of his friend.

...Who could leap in and tear into his flesh the moment he’s allowed entry.

Nick eyes the beer on the other side of the glass, feeling conflicted beyond reason.

Finn seems to have expected his hesitation and looks down solemnly.

“I won’t attack you. I’m not into that whole thing. You’re my brother after all, right? Plus, I’m sure bunny cop is itching to do you in herself.”

Nick looks between the drink and his brother.

He really doesn’t have a choice. 

When your brother wants a toast, you give him a toast.

His paws are undoing the locks before he can stop them. His body is no longer his to command. 

Finn notices the movement and gives a tiny, hopeful glance in Nick’s direction.

The window opens, forcing Finn to take a step back. The outside air rushes in, bathing Nick in the smells of the city.

Then, it’s just the two of them staring at each other with nothing to separate them.

Nick holds his breath.

But true to his word, Finnick doesn’t rush at him. Nick’s paw shakily grabs hold of the can and lifts it. Finn could easily jump down and rip his arm open, but he just stands there with his paws in his pockets.

Nick brings the can back to his body and holds it to his chest.

“So...what to?”

“To us, you thick-skulled waste of a heartbeat,” Finn cracks with a genuine smile.

“Brothers.”

“Brothers.”

“Until the end and whatever comes after.”

“True that.”

They both crack the lid on their drinks together, letting the pressurized air hiss out into the morning sky.

They throw their heads back and drink to the future.

Until a feral holler and an incoming scamper of paws sends Nick reeling back into his room, the beer splashing all over his chest.

Above him in the window, Finn laughs so hard that he falls onto his back and rolls around again.

“You little…” Nick curses. “Can I close the window? You’re making my room smell like you!”

Finn’s laughter turns into a taunting scowl.

“That’s a tasty looking throat you got there, Nicky Nick. Care if I have a bite?”

“...Yeah, I’m shutting the window now.”


	5. Spoiled Rotten

Judy provides Nick some much-needed company throughout the following days, made even better by the fact that she’s suppressing the urge to break in and kill him. She might be blocked by the door, but she’s close enough to keep Nick’s sanity in check.

He doesn’t know what he would do without her.

Nick finds himself actually thankful for the infection that brought her back. If she had gotten killed by a normal tiger during a police operation, she would have just died and stayed dead.

But because of the whole zombie thing, she gets to stay with him. And even if HE dies somehow, they’ll still be together. Maybe the end of the world isn’t so bad after all.

Sure, she’s not acting entirely like her usual self, but that’s just because of the infection’s endless desire to spread itself. If he joined her, she would probably behave like plain old Judy again. His favorite bun.

He’s quickly running out of reasons to say ‘no’ to her.

“-And let’s see...oh, yeah, Clawhauser got his arms and legs chewed off,” the zombie bunny recalls to her friend on the other side of the door.

“Wait, really? How does he get around?” Nick inquires. He sits up for a moment to change the position of his legs before sinking back to the ground. Under the crack of the door, he can see the shadow that Judy casts from where she is sitting.

The faint odor of dead animal wafts in as she talks, though Nick is growing more used to its presence.

“He rolls, of course!” she chirps.

Nick gives the door an unamused expression.

“...Rolls.”

“Uh-huh.”

Nick lets out another tired sigh and bumps his head into the back of the couch.

“What’s wrong?” Judy asks curiously.

“Nothing, just...the universe is a bit of a jerk,” Nick mumbles.

“Seems that way,” Judy agrees. Suddenly her shadow lifts up, like she just jumped to her paws. “Oh yeah!”

“Hm?”

“Almost forgot what night it is! It’s my turn to choose! I’ll be back in a bit!” the zombunny cheers excitedly. Nick tries to ask her what she means, but she’s already gone, the sound of her steps echoing through the hallway.

Nick sits up and looks down at his paws, counting the days since the apocalypse began. He hasn’t really been keeping track of the actual day of the week; he is much more focused on his dwindling food supply.

Judging by how many empty cans of tuna rest on his kitchen counter, he figures that it must be about...Friday.

Oh.

It’s their movie night.

His favorite night of the week.

Well, it had been, before mass hysteria overtook the city.

He realizes now what she meant when she said it was ‘her turn.’

Last week, he had chosen one of his favorite semi-classic horror movies. She had scoffed at the found footage nature of it, but had the sarcastic tone kicked out of her as multiple teen bunnies were stalked mercilessly during a research trip through the woods. Throughout the movie, she had gotten closer and closer to him, her eyes wide as saucers as she watched the screen with bated breath. By the time one of the two final rabbits was seen standing in the corner of the basement, Judy had just about cut the circulation off in his arm.

He can still feel how soft and warm she was that night. When the last bunny was struck from behind and the screen cut to black, Judy shrieked and buried her face in his ribs.

Nick smiles softly and rubs the area where her face had been longingly.

Oh, what a time that was. When the monsters in the movies were just mammals in costumes and when Judy digging into his ribs meant something much more wholesome.

He misses the contact. He misses his best friend.

He misses his bunny.

True to her word, the rabbit in question is back in no time at all, lugging with her a bag of stuff. He can only guess based on the sounds, but she must have brought over multiple movies and a bunch of snacks.

“Okay, so I narrowed it down to these!” she says in a bubbly voice. No less than seven different DVD cases are slid under the door for Nick to examine.

One thing becomes painfully clear to Nick.

Every single one of her choices is animated.

He lets out a silent breath and gives them all thorough examinations to see which one would be the most tolerable for him.

One of them looks foreign. Maybe it would be interesting enough.

He slides the rest back under the door for Judy to return to her bag of goodies.

“A Way With Spirits, huh? Good choice!” Judy says as she fumbles noisily with her bag.

Nick starts to get up, but Judy’s voice interrupts him.

“I brought snacks! Boaritos, Cheetah Puffs and Cricket Poppers! Your favorites!” she sings hopefully.

Well that’s thoughtful of her. He’s starting to run out of food and...wait.

“What are you going to eat?” he asks her suspiciously.

“...”

“...”

“...Maybe just a-,” she starts.

“No,” Nick cuts her off before she can even say what’s obviously running through her decaying brain.

“Oh, come on Nick! It’s been almost a week! I’m hungry!” she whines.

“I still don’t know what I want to do, Carrots! It’s a really big change! And it’ll hurt!”

“Well, you can’t expect me to just sit next to you and NOT try some!” she retorts. Nick’s head tilts, causing his ears to flop over sideways.

“What do you mean ‘sit next to’ me? You’re not coming in here,” Nick declares, causing the rabbit to stomp her foot.

“WHAT? How do you expect us to have our movie night if I can’t come in? That makes no sense!”

“Fluff, you can just come up the fire escape. You can watch through the window,” Nick tells her in an attempt to calm her down.

“You have a fire escape?! Why haven’t I been sitting outside your window the whole time?” Judy’s voice rings out. Another sound reaches Nick’s ears and his breath catches in his throat.

“Hello? Is everything all right, officer?” comes the scratchy voice of a stranger. An even stronger scent of death leaks through the bottom of the door and assaults Nick’s nose.

Who the heck is that?

“Oh, yes, sir! Sorry if I disturbed you. Just having a bit of a spat with my friend here,” Judy explains to the stranger.

“Oh, Nicholas? How has he been?” the voice asks pleasantly. Nick stops and listens to the voice, starting to recognize it more and more.

Hold on...Mrs. Thistle?

“Oh, you know…” Judy tries to sound casual, like she ISN’T standing in front of the door of what would be fresh meat for them. “He’s good, he’s good.”

Oh no. Mrs. Thistle, his elderly bobcat neighbor, is the only one Nick ever confides in about his daily life. His struggles, his hopes, his feelings...some of them towards a certain bunny.

“That’s a relief. I haven’t seen him since this all began, I thought he would have wanted to chat about it by now. Oh, he’s such a sweetheart. He always stops to chat about this and that.”

No no no.

“Oh?” Judy inquires, her curiosity obviously peaked. Nick can feel her crooked smile stretching wide, even through the door.

“Yes, yes! Why, just a couple weeks back, he helped me carry my groceries up to my room. It’s difficult for me to make multiple trips, so he’s quite a help. For the longest time, he never wanted to talk about himself. Always kept the conversation focused around me and my kin. But this last year, he’s really opened up!”

Please please please stop!

Judy must be loving this!

“About what?” Judy is practically taunting him at this point.

“Let’s see...he told me about his mother, for one. Such a poor vixen, going through all that. It’s a wonder that Nicholas turned out as well-adjusted as he is. He has such a big heart...well, had, at least.”

Please Judy, do NOT correct her!

Thankfully, the bunny doesn’t interrupt.

“Oh, he also talks about his partner at work a lot!”

NONONONO!

“Really? What does he say about her?” Judy’s voice is so fake and sweet that Nick can feel his blood sugar rising.

“Well the last time we talked, he couldn’t keep quiet about how she-”

“OH HEY MRS. THISTLE!” Nick shouts through the door, catching both of the others off guard. “Wonderful night we’re having, isn’t it?”

Feeling defeat at the paws of her daring fox, Judy groans and stomps her foot. Mrs. Thistle takes a moment to process the identity of the voice.

“Oh! Hello Nicholas!” she says, the new raspy nature of her undead voice unable to mask the warmth of her spirit. “We were just talking about you!”

Nick can feel Judy’s death glare burning a hole through the wall. She was so close to getting some juicy details.

“All good things, I hope!” Nick calls back, trying to sound casual. Mrs. Thistle lets out a slightly disturbing chuckle.

“That’s just between me and Miss...oh, I’m sorry dear, I didn’t get your name!” the cat apologizes bashfully.

“Judy,” the bunny grunts.

Mrs. Thistle lets out a small gasp.

“Oh, you’re Nick’s partner! I knew you seemed like someone I should know!”

“Y-yeah, that’s me!” Judy responds, sounding a bit hopeful that she still might get the information out of the elderly cat.

Luckily for Nick, this is not to be.

“Dear me, I almost said too much! Me and my big mouth. I should leave you two to it, then. It was nice meeting you, Ms Hopps! And I’ll talk to you soon, Nicholas!” Mrs. Thistle bodes farewell and closes the door behind her.

“You too, ma’am…” Judy sighs dejectedly.

“Whew…” Nick exhales in relief. He should have known a lady as old and sweet as Thistle wouldn’t know how easy it would be for Judy to weaponize such personal information.

“This isn’t over, Slick!” Judy barks. Nick recoils at the tone of her voice.

Uh-oh.

Judy didn’t get her way.

Send for an ambulance!

“Take the snacks! I’m not carrying them all the way back outside and up the fire escape!” she demands with urgency.

“Woah, Carrots, calm down! How am I supposed to get your bag? It won’t fit under the door!”

She stomps and groans out loud.

“Oh, crack the door, you big baby!”

Nick gulps. He still doesn’t trust her, for obvious reasons. But Finnick didn’t attack him! Maybe he could give Judy the same kind of chance.

After a few minutes, he unlocks every bolt in the door except for the sliding chain lock. Judy would be unable to fit through the small gap. He hopes.

As soon as the door creaks open enough, the edge of the bag is roughly shoved into it. But it’s not quite wide enough and the bag gets wedged.

“Nick, it’s stuck. Just pull it in the rest of the way!” the irate bunny commands. Nick’s heart skips a beat as he examines the bag. He’s going to have to reach into the gap and grab it.

He reaches forward, unable to stop his shaking.

“Nick! Hurry up!”

He swallows and sticks the tip of the glove he stuffed with tissues out into the top of the bag.

Almost instantly, the glove is yanked away from him and sucked into the hallway with the zombified rabbit. The bag falls and lands on the ground, allowing him to reach down and pull it in the rest of the way.

The sounds of savage tearing meets his ears and he’s quick to slam the door shut again.

By the time she seems to notice that she’s devouring a glove, every lock on the door is already clicked shut.

Nick holds the bag to his chest, his heavy breathing crumpling some of the chip bags hidden inside. His eyes are wide and his gaze is focused on nothing at all.

She just tried to attack him.

He could have died just then.

That glove could have been him.

A deep feeling of hurt washes over him. Judy didn’t even care about his decision, did she? The first chance she got, she went for it. He really can’t trust her. Is Finnick the only one in this deranged world that can control himself in the face of an easy meal?

The sound of spitting comes from the bunny in the hallway.

Seems she’s regaining her sense of self.

“Wha-...what the...huh? Nick? Nick, are you there?!” her voice belts out, gaining volume as she starts to process what she almost did. She paces in front of the door, not sure what to do about her actions.

Nick just sits there against his couch, his eyes starting to tear over.

He doesn’t want to see her anymore.

His mind is made up now.

There’s no way he’s letting himself turn into what she is.

To do so would be to give up who he is. Judy would never have tried to hurt him, but now that she’s one of the undead, she can’t help herself. How terrifying must that be? To just...lose control over your body at any time.

Nick doesn’t want that.

He might be with Judy if he lets her turn him, but would he even be himself?

His mind wouldn’t be his anymore. His body would be something else.

“Nick?! Please say something! Oh, cheese and crackers...NICK, PLEASE!” Judy cries. She starts banging on the door, much like the way she had done the first time she had showed up to try getting at him.

With tears staining his face, Nick gets up and calmly walks over to the TV. Judy stops pacing as the noise of Nick’s movement catches her attention.

“Nick, just say something! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, Nick!” she pleads from her side of the door. She’s powerless to make up for her mistakes if she can’t be there for him, and she knows it. Even if the door wasn’t separating them, she would just lose her mind again and go feral.

The fox turns his television on for the first time since the apocalypse started, no longer caring if any husks might hear him. He already had a chat with one, why would they suspect anything amiss? They just live their deaths like they lived their lives, anyway. His apartment building is probably full of the same mammals as it usually is. Even dead, they’re probably still just paying their rents and going out with friends like normal.

The world went on without him.

It took his friends and family with it.

He doesn’t belong here anymore.

Nick hears Judy taking off down the hallway, going somewhere else. It’s probably for the best.

He wordlessly takes the movie he had chosen out of its case and slides it into his XFox. The brightly-colored animation starts without any need for his input. The only sound he lets himself make is the occasional sniffle. He lets himself fall into the lively world on the screen, trying to imagine that he’s part of it.

Anywhere would be better than here.

His ear perks up lazily at the sound of something stomping up the fire escape ladder. Within moments, Judy finds her way up to his window and hops onto the ledge. She’s right there but he doesn’t bother looking at her.

He doesn’t want to see what she looks like. He hadn’t had the heart to tell her, but the reason he didn’t tell her to hang out at the window this whole time was because he was afraid of what he would see. When he saw her in her apartment eating the armadillo, he hadn’t actually seen her front side. In his head, he still had the image of what she used to look like, with her buck-toothed grin and her glowing violet gaze.

If he looked up into the window, he might lose that mental image of her forever.

But it hardly matters now.

The bag of snacks remains slumped over on the floor, forgotten to him. Despite the ache in his gut, he doesn’t feel hungry. Nothing sounds appetizing to him. He doesn’t even want to move.

It’s like his very soul left his body the moment Judy’s teeth sunk into the glove, right above his actual paw.

Judy bangs on the window, but Nick just stays seated in his favorite spot on the couch, his only blanket curled around him haphazardly.

“Nick! Nick, are you okay?! I can see you! You’re...not bleeding, I think. Okay, okay, we’re okay...please, just...can we talk about that? Nick, can you hear me?”

Nick says nothing, his eyes glued to the screen. The beautifully animated intro ends and the movie begins for real.

“Nick…?” she whispers, her voice barely audible through the thick glass.

She doesn’t try to get his attention after that. For the rest of the night, they watch movies together, with Nick frozen on his couch and Judy watching over him from the window.

Funny, how the one with a pulse seems so much more lifeless.

It rains for the first time in weeks.

Despite the downpour, Judy doesn’t leave the ledge of her favorite fox’s window.

At least from there, she can see him.

Even after his eyes close and he loses himself to the sweet nothingness of slumber, she watches.

Inside her mind, for the first time since her death…

She feels displeasure towards her turning.


	6. Silence of the Lamb

Judy Hopps is such a dumb bunny.

And a HORRIBLE friend.

She’s nothing but a bloodthirsty monster who almost killed her best friend against his will.

Why did she do that?

She had been doing so good since the first day, making sure she behaved herself…

But had she?

She replays the memories of her interactions with her foxy friend in her decaying mind.

What she thought were fun little games between them of her trying her best to get in and him trying to stop her suddenly have a new light cast on them. Instead of being silly little moments, they start to turn into what they truly are: Nick’s struggles to keep his life as she constantly tries to end it.

Judy sits on the window’s ledge, her body slumped over as she gazes out at the city of undead mammals below her. The morning light shines through the haze of the rain from the previous night. The swarms of zombies start to make their way around town to wherever they need to go. For the past week, Judy had been looking out at the morning sunrises with nothing but admiration. All those animals, both predator and prey, getting along for once and helping each other get used to their new bodies.

But she can’t see that same image anymore.

She starts to pick up on all the little depressing details. So many mammals with limited mobility because of their injuries. So many families with missing members. So many future mothers who will never be. Life can’t grow inside of a husk without a pulse, after all.

How many were pregnant when they were turned?

She doesn’t even want to think about it.

Just below her, she sees a crowd of young ones following their mother through the busy streets. Judy knows this family from her time as an officer. It’s with a heavy heart that she notes three less pups then there used to be in the pack. The family seems happy enough, but she suspects that their contentment with the situation is very much like her own; an influence of the infection that caused them to rise and spread.

Why has she been happy about herself this whole time?

What if Nick is right?

The end of the world came and doped her up with some sort of ‘happy drug’ to keep her satisfied while the infection finished the job.

Judy looks down at her paws, noting how rotten they’re starting to look. She doesn’t feel any pain and that pleasant tingle still fills her entire body completely. But she’s still a corpse that will fall apart over time. She can finally look at her zombification as anything other than a good thing and the feeling is bittersweet.

The world dims a bit in her eyes, but it feels like a part of her that she lost upon her death is starting to return.

It just sucks that she had to potentially lose her friendship with Nick forever to get herself back.

As the herds of her fellow husks shuffle happily down below, Judy lets herself cry.

She cries for her city.

She cries for the mammals lost to this horrible plague.

She cries for her friends and family, whose fates she hasn’t even bothered to fully learn.

She cries for herself.

And she cries for her best friend, who she made feel like he was less important than the sum of his meat. Out of everyone, she knows that Nick has been suffering the most. He’s had to stand by and watch all of this play out, without any of the stress-killing help of the infection’s influence. Everyone he knows and loves is dead, while he still retains his heartbeat. He’s been the only one able to process just what kind of loss the world has suffered.

The forlorn rabbit turns her gaze away from the city and fixes it on the sleeping tod on the other side of the window. The TV has been replaying the home screen of one of the movies they watched last night. Even asleep, Nick looks lifeless.

Since the bite that almost happened the previous night, she can tell that part of her friend has died. He wanted so badly to trust her and act like the world was just a slightly-different version than what it used to be. But all it took was a torn-up glove to shatter that illusion for him.

In a way, last night was an eye-opener for both of them.

Judy started seeing the infection for the tragedy that it is.

And Nick started seeing Judy as the husk she is.

She can’t help the painful ache that courses through her at that moment. But it’s the fact that she can feel any kind of pain at all that surprises her.

“Huh?” she ponders as she holds a tattered paw over her chest. It...hurts.

Why does it hurt?

Judy’s eyes widen and she takes another look at the sleeping form of the fox. And for the first time, she doesn’t feel that overwhelming urge to hunt him and bite into his flesh.

She slides over to get a better look at him, just in case she just wasn’t seeing him all the way. Even with the sunlight glistening across his russet fur, she can’t feel any hunger towards him. The desire for his delicious canine meat is missing.

And it’s such a lovely thing to miss.

She...doesn’t want to hurt him anymore. Her self-control is somehow back.

She’s back!

A feeling of elation passes down her spine and it has nothing to do with the infection’s mind control. This is the first time in a week that she’s felt happy...TRULY happy. The infection’s happiness is just a pleasant high that made her content with everything happening to her. But this new feeling is totally different.

It’s actually something she can feel roasting her insides, as if she still had a pulse.

She needs to tell Nick!

Judy hops to her feet and goes to knock on the glass and wake him up, but the sight of the open door behind him stops her dead in her tracks. The wooden door that she had been locked behind for the last week is wide open, all of the locks scattered along the floor. There’s splinters of wood from the cracked door frame littering the hardwood.

Something got in.

Nick’s not alone in the room.

And he’s still asleep!

“NICK!” Judy shrieks, pounding as hard as she can on the window in hopes of stirring him from his slumber. The fox groans and shuffles around slightly, but falls back into full unconsciousness.

Judy’s heart, as rotten and dried up as it is, falls in her chest. She can’t protect him.

She goes to scream his name again, but two large figures walk in front of the window in front of her face, filling her vision with the ghastly sight of two decaying rams.

Most of the skin on their faces is gone, leaving behind wide-open eyes and exposed skulls. Their horns, as twisted and intimidating as they are, are perfect for bashing doors open. A tingle of familiarity hits Judy all too quickly as she takes in their profiles.

She knows these two.

From...the Nighthowler case. On the train.

Judy almost throws up a part of herself as it hits her.

One of the rams leans down, picking up the chair that had been wedged under Nick’s doorknob and places it right in front of the window. The two rams step back and fold their arms, letting someone else take over.

Judy doesn’t know what’s going on at first, but the blood-stained ball of wool that pops into her vision answers her quickly enough. The stunted, broken form of Dawn Bellwether climbs up onto the chair and stands to greet her.

Judy’s blood goes even colder than it had been.

The tiny sheep meets Judy face-to-face for the first time since the case that ended in her arrest and incarceration. Judy can only stare in horror at Bellwether’s rotten grin. All in all, Dawn’s appearance isn’t too bad. She’s grey and zombie-like, yes, but has very little in the way of personal injury.

That’s what Judy thinks at first.

But then she sees that her tattered blouse barely covers her hollowed out middle section. Whatever got to her first apparently had a feast on her innards and left her like that. Judy cringes and tries not to imagine how much that probably hurt. She definitely didn’t have a quick death.

“Oh, hi, Judy! Long time, no see!” Dawn greets in her sickeningly sweet voice. The sheep takes a moment to adjust her glasses, though she probably doesn’t need them. The lenses are shattered beyond repair and the frames are bent horribly.

“Bellwether…” Judy mumbles, her body shaking terribly. Dawn’s smile grows even more sinister as she sees how much her presence affects the bunny. For her, it’s everything she could have hoped. The bunny that foiled her plans and the fox who helped her do it...both at her mercy.

“I’m glad you’re here, actually! See, I wanted to talk to you first, but you wouldn’t answer your calls! We went looking for you, but that landlady of yours told us you didn’t live there anymore. Seemed really mad at you for some reason. Can’t imagine why. Aaaanyway, we figured we might as well check up on our little foxy friend over there, since he was such a big help and all!” Dawn explains with her hooves held behind her back like she’s an innocent little lamb.

Judy’s jaw hangs open, rendering her speechless.

Bellwether goes to say something else, but a tap on the shoulder from one of her ram friends draws her attention away from the trembling rabbit.

“What? I’m busy! What’s so-” Dawn starts to reprimand the ram, but he simply points to the couch, where Nick is finally starting to stir. The other ram squats down in front of the fox, his exposed jaws hanging open hungrily.

A flash of realization snaps across Bellwether’s face and she’s quick to act.

“HEY! No, Jesse! Get back!” she shouts just as the ram goes to take a bite. The muscled guard falters and halts himself, though with great difficulty. It seems that Bellwether has more power over him than the infection does, though, and he backs off.

Judy is pawing weakly at the glass at this point, unable to keep her emotions held in anymore.

Dawn turns back to her with an evil glint in her bloodshot eyes.

“Oh-ho! What’s this, then? Keeping this one to yourself, are you? You know, I shouldn’t be surprised. I knew you two had a thing going on, but I never thought you would be so depraved as to try out some classic role-reversal,” the sheep laughs.

Judy breaks her gaze from her friend and looks to the rotten sheep separated only by a plane of glass.

“H-huh…?” Judy stutters. Dawn rolls her eyes.

“Get it? You know, the predator becomes the prey...he was the predator and now he’s the...you know what, just forget it! I’m not going to waste my humor on pests like you, Hopps. I was just planning on destroying him beyond repair, but this is WAY better.”

Judy finally manages to get some of her composure back.

“N-NO! HE DOESN’T WANT TO TURN! HE DOESN’T-” Judy screams as she bangs on the window again. Dawn lets out a horrible, snorting laugh that shuts the rabbit right up.

“Pfft HAHAHA! Heh heh...ooooh Judy...who said we were going to turn him? The way I see it, just turning him would be doing you a favor, and we don’t want that, now do we?” Dawn sneers at her most hated rival.

Judy’s tattered ears perk up in confusion and her nose twitches quickly.

“No no no, I have something MUCH better in mind!” Dawn laughs louder. “Woolter, Jesse! Grab the fox! Bring him to the roof!”

The rams move to comply.

“...AND NO BITING HIM,” Dawn screams. The two rams flinch but nod their skulls. Judy can only look on as their undead hooves wrap around Nick’s shoulders and lift him right off of the couch.

Nick snaps awake the rest of the way, just to see the horrifying image of the two zombified rams grinning down at him. The scream that he lets out echoes throughout the room and rattles the glass. Judy will never forget the sound.

“Oh, music to my ears! Quite a lovely vibrato he has, don’t you agree?” Dawn taunts as she turns back to Judy. The look of pure malice and satisfaction on the sheep’s face angers Judy like nothing ever has before. The bunny balls her fist and slams it into the window with enough force to actually crack it. A spiderweb of fractures spreads across the plane of glass, the sudden sound startling Dawn off of the chair. She falls onto her back and her blouse slides up, revealing just how empty her chest is.

There really is nothing left in her, much less a heart.

Nick struggles audibly in the grasp of the rams, but isn’t nearly strong enough to contest them. They hold him above the ground so that his flailing paws only scratch air.

“You traitorous little...TAKE HIM TO THE ROOF, YOU IDIOTS!” Bellwether shrieks. The rams bolt out of the room with Nick in their grasp, the poor tod screaming the whole way. Judy’s eyes dart up just as the tip of the fox’s tail exits the doorway.

Dawn grins up at her from her spot on the floor.

“Ta-ta, Judy! I’d stay and chat, but I don’t want to be late for Nick’s appointment with the pavement!”

With that said, the sheep leaps to her hooves and scampers after her two thick-skulled companions. It takes Judy a few moments to process what she meant, but then it hits even harder than the tiger that had ended her life.

They’re just...going to toss him off of the roof!

And without the reanimation effect from the infection, Nick will...just die.

He won’t come back.

He’ll just be a mangled mess on the street and she’ll never be able to tell him how sorry she is. She’ll lose her best friend forever. And he will die hating her.

Judy’s feet find traction after a second of slipping on the metal of the fire escape and she takes off up the stairs like a tiny grey rocket. Her body functions on autopilot, using her police training and free-running skills to scale the apartment building at a speed unobtainable by any living being. She can hear her drying bones cracking as she moves, but she doesn’t pay them any mind. She can mend her broken bones later, once Nick is safe.

Within a minute, she’s pulling herself up over the ledge of the roof. From here, she can see the city below in all of it’s gory, glorious detail. The herds of undead are out in full numbers now, living their day without a care in the world.

But she doesn’t see Nick or his captors.

She silently limps around, seeing if she had missed them somehow.

But it turns out to just be a matter of time before the two rams and Bellwether come flying out of the access door with Nick dangling limply in their grasp. It seems that sometime between being taken and arriving at the roof, Nick had given up and just accepted his death. A heartbreakingly empty look rests on his face, a look that Judy can barely stand to see.

It’s the same look that he wore the night before as he processed her inability to leave him alive.

“Jesse, you block the door! Woolter, brind the fox to the edge! No, not there, over here! Where the city can see! Oooh how about that? If he survives the landing, the dead will finish him off! Yes, yes! I can hear the screams already!” Dawn giggles. The one ram does his duty and props himself in front of the door, as if Judy was going to be following right behind them.

Judy hides behind an air vent. A small tingle of cosmic irony hits her as she realizes that an air vent is concealing her again, but this time it’s to save Nick instead of to turn him.

Woolter lugs the hopeless fox over to the edge of the roof, for all the world to see.

Nick stares at the city below with an empty expression, not really processing his surroundings anymore. It doesn’t matter that he won’t come back. He doesn’t want to anymore. Maybe this is actually the quickest and easiest way for him to exit this nightmare for good.

Judy sneaks a bit closer, following behind Bellwether silently.

“You see that down there, Wilde? That’s your end. You’re just going to end up as a smear on the road for the infected to feast on. How do you feel about that?” Dawn sings.

Nick shrugs in Woolter’s grip, his tail flicking lazily from side to side.

“Eh. Better than living as worm food, I guess,” he mumbles. Dawn stops laughing and gives him a suspicious glare. Woolter looks down at something distracting him on the street below.

“...That’s it? No crying, or begging, or pleas for mercy? Geez, fox, you made it this long. I figured you would want to keep trying a bit harder,” the sheep says irritably. It seems she wanted him to react a bit more before her ultimate revenge, and being denied that satisfaction is ruining the whole thing for her.

“What do you want me to say? I’m just done. My friends and family are gone, my life is over and I can’t even be in the same room with Judy. I don’t want to trade my mind for a bit of extra time to shamble around. If you’re going to drop me, just go ahead and do it! It’s better than listening to Lamb of the Dead rattle off like a cotton-covered squeaky toy!” Nick barks up at the ram holding him. Woolter shuffles nervously, not liking that a living being is shouting in his face without any sense of self-preservation.

“...You love her, don’t you?” Dawn inquires.

“Oh for the love of...YES! YES I DO! AND WHY DOES THAT EVEN MATTER RIGHT NOW?!” Nick shouts back with fury in his voice. The sheep smirks, a sense of well-earned satisfaction washing over her tiny frame.

“Oh, it’s just a little something extra I can tell her when she’s crying over your corpse, is all. What a romantic little tragedy, huh? Predator falls in love with prey, prey become predator, and they can’t even share- WAIT. HOLD ON. Did you...did you just say ‘Lamb of the Dead’? Was that supposed to be a movie pun? You...you know my name is ‘Dawn’, right? Out of all the obvious jokes you could have gone with, you didn’t...OOH NOW I’M MAD. YOU COULD HAVE JUST SAID ‘DAWN OF THE DEAD’, BUT INSTEAD YOU-”

Bellwether doesn’t hear the sound of Judy sprinting towards her, her voice blocking any of the sounds that could have warned her of the incoming projectile.

With a startled squeak, Dawn is launched by two flying rabbit feet.

The street suddenly rushes up to meet her.

Nick and Woolter watch as Bellwether tumbles over the edge of the roof, shrieking the whole way down. Woolter sets Nick down and leans over the edge to watch his boss meet the asphalt. Nick, taking advantage of the situation, gives the ram a forceful kick in the tail and sends him flying over the side as well.

Judy scrambles up to her friend as they listen to the screams from their two airborne enemies.

“YAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaagh~”

“B-A-A-A-AAAAAaaaaaaaa-bleh!”

The sound of impact reaches the ears of the two friends left standing.

Thmp!

“Nooooo! The rest of my babies!”

Nick turns away from the massive splatter, his stomach churning from the thought that he was almost down there instead. He’s overtaken by the small form of a decaying grey rabbit, who wraps her arms around his waist and pulls him into a tight hug.

He jolts back at the sight of her and closes his eyes tight, preparing himself for the incoming pain of being torn into.

But it never comes.

Nick slowly opens an eye and sneaks a peak at his undead friend.

Judy is snuggling the ever living crap out of him, but she isn’t trying to bite him at all. She’s just...hugging him. Her mouth is right there in his side, but she isn’t biting him.

“H-hey...Judy…” Nick manages to mumble to her. He places a trembling paw on her head, feeling how greasy and stiff her fur is now. But to his surprise, she still feels like herself.

Judy looks up at him with loving eyes, giving Nick his first actual look at her since she died.

And, to his further elation, she doesn’t look that bad. She’s greyer than she used to be, but she’s still just as beautiful as he remembers. In fact, seeing her after everything that’s happened...she’s more beautiful now than ever before.

She smiles up at him, her expression one of relief and care.

He finds himself smiling back down at her.

And...crap, he said all that with her right there, didn’t he?

Oh well, might as well go for it.

Nick starts to close his eyes and leans down, his lips puckering slightly. But before he can fulfill his kiss, a grey paw shoves his muzzle away. He expects to see her giving him a confused look, but she’s just smirking at him like she always used to.

“Careful, Slick. The infection can still spread that way, too,” she chuckles. With his face heating up, he gives her a bashful look and clears his throat. Well, it was worth a shot!

He hugs her back and the two stand there for a good while, the shared contact the most wonderful feeling in the world for both of them. They both fully expected to never be able to hug each other again, but here they are.

It’s the best hug they’re ever shared.

After the moment starts to pass, Nick finds his words again.

“So...what changed…?” he asks, giving his zombified bun a curious look. Judy lets out one last huff of contentment before answering him.

“...My perspective, I think...I thought about the infection and how it’s...not really as good as I thought it was, and...I just sort of started hurting again. And I got my control back. It’s like, once I stopped buying into the influence of the infection, it stopped controlling me, I guess.”

Nick tries to follow along, but it seems weird to him. But then he gets another thought.

“That makes some sense actually. Finnick wasn’t happy with being turned either, and he didn’t attack me when I opened the window.”

Judy pulls away slightly and gives the taller fox a glare.

“You jerk! You let Finn in and not me?!” Judy whines, using one of her paws to give Nick a soft punch in the chest.

“Hey! You saw what happened! It’s a good thing it was him!” Nick argues, though the smile stays on his face. Despite everything, he’s glad to be at the painful end of her bunny punches again.

The tender moment between the two is interrupted as Jesse goes soaring over the edge, bleating his rotten lungs out the entire way down.

Nick and Judy look back from where he came flying from.

Mrs. Thistle stands there, slapping her paws together to rid them of any lingering undead wool.

Jesse makes the final impact of the day.

“EE-!”

Thmp!

Nick waits for the same scream to echo out, but it never does.

“Huh...guess he got the mother that time,” Nick says out loud to himself. Judy gives him a strange look but chooses not to question him about it. The bobcat behind them limps up slowly and peers over the side at the carnage below.

“Mrs. Thistle?” Nick questions, feeling a small tingle of fear. Judy might be safe to be around now, but that doesn’t apply to the rest of the animals he lives with. But the elderly feline just gives the fox a pleasant smile and places her paws on her hips in triumph.

“Don’t mind me, Nicholas! Just taking out some trash, is all,” she assures. “Now then, I think I heard you shouting something about your partner here, unless I’m mistaken.”

Nick tilts his head in confusion, but Judy catches on and buries her face in his chest.

The tod looks down.

“Oh, that!” he shouts, his face growing even redder than normal. Mrs. Thistle rolls her undead eyes and sighs good-naturedly.

“Yes, that. Silly kit.”

Nick gives ones of Judy’s tattered ears a rub.

“Oh, geez.”


	7. Heart to Husk

It’s surreal.

Judy’s just there, sitting next to him on his couch.

A movie is playing but Nick can barely pay attention to it.

He missed this so much.

He almost let himself die just because he thought he would never have it again.

Is this what love is? Sitting on the couch together just because you can’t stand to be apart? Nick doesn’t even need the physical contact to be satisfied with this new arrangement.

Since Judy got kicked out of her apartment for devouring her landlady, she had to move in with him. She didn’t have much to bring over, and Nick has plenty of empty space in his own apartment.

Plus, he got to spend actual time with her now, especially since she doesn’t have work today .

With his own job put on hold for the time being, it’s mostly up to Judy to bring home the bacon.

Well, not bacon, but fish.

Turns out fish is all the rage now, since mammal meat is becoming so scarce. And surprise surprise, the thing to fill that role is actually something that Nick can stomach himself. He quite enjoys it!

So does Judy, if her cute little nommy sounds are anything to go by. They can eat the same food consistently now, even if he much prefers his portion cooked. He had fish every so often before the fall of the city, as had most larger predators. But since it’s the main food source now, it’s much cheaper and Judy can pretty much afford anything she feels like trying out.

Nick is flat broke from being unable to go to work. But the bunny sitting next to him, the one splattering him with flying chunks of salmon, is more than happy to cover his share for the time being.

He gives her a few sideways glances, noticing that she doesn’t look quite as grey as she used to. Her ears are more perky now, too.

“So how’s work actually been, Fluff?” Nick asks through a mouthful of baked salmon filet. The zombunny takes a few more savage bites at her raw fish before wiping her mouth and face with a towel.

“Urp!-‘Scuse me! S’good. Oh, it’s fine. No more recent turnings. Seems that anyone not already infected is either deep in hiding or is way outside of the city by now,” Judy explains. Nick gives her a soft but cautious glance.

“Any news on your family…?”

Judy turns her head down towards the floor and lets out a pained sigh.

“No, nothing yet. I think they may have evacuated and left their phones behind by accident or something.”

The fox reaches a paw over and rubs her head gently, as to not tear any of the delicate skin. To his surprise, the skin seems stronger now than it was before.

“Don’t worry, Carrots. I’m sure you’ll hear from them soon enough.”

Judy keeps her gaze to the floor, but manages to reach a paw up to place on his. The room is silent for a while after that, with the two taking time to contemplate the world around them and their places in it.

“Bogo wants to know when you’ll be coming back to work. He says your sick leave is running out,” Judy pipes up suddenly, her sarcastic tone betraying her.

Nick scoffs.

“Don’t you mean my ‘healthy’ leave?” Nick jokes, his eyes half lidded and his face falling back into his trademark smirk.

“Can it, mister. Your jokes have been awful lately. I guess your sense of humor died when the world did,” Judy groans with a paw over her face. Nick places a paw over his chest and acts uncharacteristically offended.

“I am uncharacteristically offended, madam! I’ll have you know that my jokes are funny enough to raise the dead!”

Judy glares harder, giving him a low growl and a flash of her chipped zombie teeth. Nick’s laughter quiets down until it’s nothing more than a nervous chuckle.

“That’s what I thought,” Judy smirks.

“Yeah, yeah…don’t need to threaten me, though…”

“Don’t I though? I AM one of the hopping dead. Consider yourself privileged to even be breathing with me in the room!” Judy smiles widely. Nick’s eyes twinkle playfully.

“Being around you is always a privilege.”

Judy’s eyes open wide and her smile falls, replaced by a fierce pout.

“Nick! None of that! None!” she whines, her paws flailing and hitting him in the shoulder like little fluffy drumsticks. The fox laughs along through the assault, letting himself be defeated by the rabid bun. By the time she calms down, she’s leaning over him. He’s laying all the way back, having tried to escape into the couch cushions to avoid her flurry of strikes.

They both suddenly notice what kind of position they’re in, but neither of them move right away. She feels her ears flop over her eyes in a subconscious effort to hide the warmth growing in her cheeks.

“Huh?” she mumbles to herself. Nick is too busy cherishing the sight of her to notice anything amiss, but she’s quick to slap him awake.

“Huh huh what?!” he stutters up at his fuzzy undead assailant. She slaps him again, too distracted to notice that he’s paying attention. “Oof! Judy, quit it!”

“Nick! Nick, feel!” Judy demands as she grabs one of his paws and pulls it to her face. He doesn’t know what she means at first. But the cheek quickly warms his hand and he’s instantly at a loss for words.

“Warm,” he whispers in awe.

“Warm!”

“Warm!”

“Why warm?!”

“Don’t know why warm!”

“How warm?!”

“Warm how?!”

“WARM!” they shriek at each other.

“Dead?”

Judy places a paw over her chest and is crestfallen to find that her heart is still not beating. In a sudden moment of hope, she had allowed herself to believe that she might have actually come back to life, despite all of the evidence pointing to that being impossible. But in a world where the dead can rise, who is to say for sure that they can’t live again?

Nick watches as his bunny goes through a myriad of emotions, the dominant one being disappointment. He gives her a sympathetic smile and reaches up, pushing her ears out of the way of her eyes.

Another thing he notices improving are her eyes. They were bloodshot and dilated when he first saw her, but they’ve since gained back much of their natural color. Overall, she’s looking less like a corpse and more like a silly bunny with zombie makeup.

Something strange is definitely happening.

Judy sits back up, forcing a slight whine to rumble from Nick’s throat. He liked that position. Why did she have to leave?

“Nick…” Judy mumbles darkly as she slides back to her own side of the couch, away from her fox.

“Hm?”

“What you said back on the roof…” she starts. Nick’s heart picks up speed and his vision zooms in on his deceased bunny. “Did you mean it?”

“Yes.”

Judy flinches back, having not expected him to be so willing to answer. She had anticipated him trying to at least dance around it, but instead he went for the throat. 

“Really?”

“Mhm.”

“But...how can you mean it?” she asks, trying to hide behind her ears again. Nick is having none of that and sits up so that he can tuck those ears away once and for all.

“Sorry if it doesn’t make sense to you. It didn’t to me either until I was looking down off of the roof, waiting to die. When Bellwether asked, it was so obvious to me, and since I thought I was doomed anyway, I figured I had no reason to lie to myself anymore. You really do see things a lot clearer when you’re faced with your death.”

“I don’t know, Slick. When I died, everything was just a blur,” Judy jokes weakly. He gives her a soft bop on the head and pulls his paw back just as she playfully bites at it.

“You silly bun, that’s cause you were getting the stuffing shaken out of you by a massive tiger. Didn’t you, awwww poor baaaybeee~,” he taunts back.

“Dumb fox,” Judy sighs. “But seriously, Nick. How can you feel anything towards me? After what I became? What I am?”

“Because now I know that you’re still you. You’re not what the infection wants you to be anymore. I was so scared that it had tainted who you were forever...but nope. Just Judy. With some stinky breath.”

“It’s not that bad anymore! I’ve been brushing!” she squeals as she assaults him with another barrage of bunny bops. 

“I’ve noticed. You used my toothbrush by accident, Carrots,” Nick teases. Judy immediately goes frigid and gives him a wide-eyed expression.

“No…I...oh, Nick! I’m…I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to, I swear! Please don’t think-!”

Nick waves his paws in front of her twitching nose to stop her meltdown.

“Woah, woah! I didn’t use it! It was covered with gunk, Judes,” Nick quickly assures her. She stares into his eyes for a few seconds to make absolutely sure he’s telling the truth.

She sees nothing but the emerald green eyes of her favorite fox and lets out a massive sigh of relief.

“See...that’s what I mean, Nick! I might be able to control myself now, but I can still infect you if we’re not one hundred percent careful!”

Nick nibbles on his lip, mulling over what she’s telling him. In truth, he knows the risk. All it would take to kill him would be one accidental lapse of judgement. One little drop of her sludge blood falling into his mouth or getting in his eyes and it’s game over for ol’ foxy.

Even still…

“I know,” he states firmly. Judy can only stare at him.

“After everything you went through the stay alive...why are you acting like dying wouldn’t be that big of a deal?” she asks, though her tone is less accusatory and more concerned.

“To tell you the truth...I was strongly considering letting you turn me before,” he tells her in no uncertain terms. “The main thing I was held up on was thinking that I would lose control over myself. I didn’t like the idea that I would just be a passenger in my own body.”

Judy nods, the feeling very familiar to her.

“But seeing how you overcame the infection just by denying its influence...it kind of shot those fears down. Now all that’s left holding me back is…”

“...Is what?”

“...I’m still scared,” he says, averting his gaze from her. He doesn’t want to show any weakness or emotion to her, even if he knows she wouldn’t judge him for it.

“Scared of what, though? I’d think being the only one with a heartbeat in a city full of the undead would be scarier…” Judy mumbles.

“Well, Carrots, it’s still death. Dying isn’t fun, as I’m sure you know. What was the last thought that went through your mind when that tiger was mauling you?”

Judy tilts her head in thought, her ears flopping over to the side and warming Nick’s heart just a little more.

“...Weeeee?” she offers with an innocent smile. Nick returns her joke with a grumpy frown. “Okay! Fine! I think...it was about everyone I love being sad about me. I didn’t want to hurt them by leaving. Also how short my life was. I’ve only been a cop for a couple years now, Nick. I always thought I’d at least make it to my fifties before taking a bullet for someone.”

Nick rubs his arm, not entirely sure what to say to her in the face of such an intimate reveal. Sure, he asked for it, but he didn’t know how deep she was willing to go.

“I thought about you, mostly.”

Nick’s head shoots back up. Did he just hear her correctly?

“I saw the look on your face right before it all went black. That...was the most painful part, I think. You were trying so hard to get to me but the crowd wouldn’t let you through. And being my usual dumb bunny self, I got into trouble again because I left you behind. The last thing that went through my mind was...Nick’s going to think it’s his fault. But it wasn’t. It was mine.”

Nick is barely keeping himself held together, the traumatizing memory of that moment playing on loop through his mind.

“I’m sorry, partner.”

“It’s...thank you...thank you for coming back and keeping me company...even if you spent a lot of time trying to eat me like a carrot,” Nick sniffles l, trying to hide his emotions with his usual humor. Judy doesn’t buy it for a second.

“So what do you want to do?” Judy asks. The fox tries desperately to pull his emotional wreck-of-a-self together before attempting to answer.

“I...think I want to try. Just keep going on until something happens. And if...well, when it does, then I’ll have you there to show me the way...right?” he asks, part of his mask crumbling away to show the vulnerable tod underneath.

Judy feels her cheek get warm again...somehow.

“...Of course, Nick.”

“Well, then I guess that just leaves your final answer, then,” Nick states, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, like...what I said on the roof. But it’s not a one-sided thing. And I didn’t want to get my hopes up, just in case…but…” Nick points down to his tail, which is wagging back and forth rapidly against the side of the couch cushion. Judy blinks down at the appendage. Then she looks back up into the hopeful expression of the fox.

Her fox.

“My fox,” she says out loud. Nick’s hopeful expression widens and his tail wags even harder.

“Wait...I’m your fox?”

“Always have been,” she affirms, feeling another surge of heat in her body. But this time, it comes from her chest. She doesn’t bother checking to see if her heart has started beating this time. It doesn’t matter to her. She has her mind and she has Nick. For night now, that’s plenty.

Nick springs forward onto his knees and throws his arms around his undead bun. He doesn’t cry, but he does let out a series of emotional yips and barks at her as he smothers her in affection.

“HEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!” he chatters noisily. Judy just has to let herself take in the sheer adorability of her fox’s behavior. Never in a million years did she imagine she would get to see him act this way. Nick is lost in the moment, doing everything he can to cover her in his scent. It’s a bit of a losing battle, since her dead animal aroma is slightly more powerful than his foxy fragrance.

He finally settles down, and starts to realize that she had been watching him act like a love struck kit for well over twenty minutes.

“Eh-hem...yes...well…” he mumbles into his paw, trying to hide his flicking ears.

She just smirks.

Her smirk is knocked away by the fox’s tail, the bushy weapon flailing at the speed of sound. Nick tries to stop it, but is obviously powerless at this point.

Okay, her fox has been humiliated enough. Time to share the embarrassment.

Judy suddenly hops to her feet and spins around, waving her bunny booty at Nick. The fox, in turn, freezes solid and stares at what he’s being shown.

Her tail is flicking back and forth just as fast as his.

“Gasp! No way! We match!” she giggles back at him. She sneaks a peek at her fox and sees that he is justifiably transfixed by the show she’s giving him. Even though she’s dead and he’s alive, even though they’re different species, teasing still works just as-

Plop

Judy’s body locks up and a massive chill runs down her spine.

Nick sucks in an unhealthy amount of air.

That didn’t happen.

That didn’t just happen.

There’s no way the universe is cruel enough…

“...Nick?” she asks faintly.

“...Yeah…?”

“Did my tail just fall off…?”

Silence.

“...Kinda…”

“...Thought so…”

“...”

“...”

“I’ll get the stapler.”

“Thank you, Nick.”

“...I love you.”

“Love you too, you dumb fox. Please get the stapler.”


	8. Mother Fearest

Nick is just finishing reattaching Judy’s tail when they hear a knock at the window.

Nick is quick to dive behind the couch, out of sight of any looming predators. Judy shoots a curious glance to the tail sticking out from under the couch.

She turns to the source of the sound, only to come face to face with a familiar sneer peering back at her through the cracked glass.

She can’t help stare at his droopy eye.

“Finnick?” she asks the small fox through the window. The fennec appears surprised to see her in the room. His lips suddenly curl into a combative snarl.

“BUNNY COP! Where is Nick?! Did you turn him?! Girl, I swear, if you-!”

“Finnick, calm down! I didn’t do anything to him! He’s fine! He’s just hiding behind the couch is all,” she hastily explains before he can lose his temper.

“The couch-...Nick! Nick get your fuzzy red butt over here! This is important!” Finn bellows through the compromised glass. A small thump sound is heard coming from the couch, followed by a pained yelp.

Nick slides out of his hiding spot and rubs his throbbing head.

“Hey, Finn. To what do we owe the pleasure?” Nick grunts. Finnick gives him a confused look and turns to Judy.

“...How he still breathin’? Thought you would have snogged him to death by now. He holdin’ out on you?” the small fox crudely asks.

Judy’s face heats up again and Finn manages to see it. His giant ears droop down in shock. He reaches up on the tips of his toes so that he can place a paw on the rabbit’s cheek.

“How the…” he stutters.

Judy bops him forcefully on the head, knocking his eyeball right out of his skull. She gasps down the dangling organ and almost feels sick from it. The fennec growls and quickly shoves the eye back into place.

“Finn! Focus! Where’s the fire?!” Nick demands, trying to ignore the sight of his brother falling apart again. The wet schlock of the eye popping into place does his appetite no favors.

“The fire?! Have you two watched the news lately?!” he barks furiously. The two look at each other and then back to him. Both heads shake suspiciously. He slams a rotting paw into his face and rubs it. “Just! Turn on the channel!”

Judy grabs the remote and turns the source back to normal television, finally ending the movie’s main menu music that had been playing on repeat for over an hour. It takes her some channel skipping to find the news, not being used to Nick’s stations.

She stops switching stations when she sees a shakily filmed video of Nick and herself on the apartment roof, hugging each other tightly. The video is being taken by someone on the street below, and the owner of the phone keeps changing the focus between the mammals on the roof and the ones splattered on the road below them.

A bunch of the undead in the surrounding crowd are rushing to help the wolf cubs and their mother, who had been landed on by the two rams and smaller ewe.

Judy cringes when she sees the whining remains of Bellwether being rolled into a plastic bag to be reassembled at the hospital.

The mother and her cubs are less injured than the roof divers, but still need pieces of them reattached. The crowd helps the zombified paramedics gather everyone

The two rams had landed headfirst, so there isn’t much to save. It seems that the dead can still die. Their chunks are gathered into trash cans for later disposal.

The one recording turns the phone back up to the roof, where Judy sees that she’s still snuggling with her fox, just as he goes to kiss her. She watches herself push him away and it hurts her inside. She wants to let him so badly, but she knows the consequences wouldn’t be worth it...yet.

A few in the crowd point up at them. Nick’s ears splay back as he hears mumbles of ‘breather!’ and ‘meat!’ coming from the audience. But a general sense of confusion swirls around the numerous shambling husks.

They don’t understand why Judy isn’t attacking him. She has Nick in her grasp and her teeth aren’t digging into his skin.

“What the hell have you two been doing?!” Finn demands from outside the window. Nick’s eyes are still locked onto the television. Judy is too busy chewing on her bottom lip to answer.

Finn pulls out his phone and holds it up to the glass for Nick and Judy to see. The screen is displaying his recent call list, which is full of dozens of calls between himself and…

“Mom?” Nick mumbles, his eyes growing wide. Finn gives him a glare and returns his phone to his pocket.

“She’s been calling me nonstop, trying to find out where you are! Where’s your phone?! Why am I the one she’s been blowing up at?!” the hooded fennec demands impatiently. Nick manages a dry swallow and takes a look around, trying to find his phone. He hadn’t used it since...the last time he called his mother. Its location is a mystery.

“Finn, can you call my number? I don’t actually know where it is.”

Finnick groans, rolls his good eyes and pulls his phone out to call his brother. Judy lets out a tiny squeak as she feels something vibrating under her recently stapled tail. She is quick to pull the offending piece of tech out from under her butt.

She throws the black rectangle to Nick. The fox, trying to ignore where the phone was resting the whole time, slides open his phone and sees that the battery is almost dead.

He cringes guiltily.

105 missed calls.

Hundreds more texts that look like Corduroy tried to type them with his nose.

Dozens of MuzzleTime requests.

Even a few notifications on Instamam.

All from the last day or so. How hadn't he heard any of the notifications? Maybe he was too lost in his bun’s eyes…

“What did she say?” the russet fox asks hesitantly.

“Nick, man, she saw you getting held off the edge of the roof! Well...she didn’t see you, but her new mate did. What did you think was going to happen?! She’s on her way here right now!” Finnick shouts.

“What do you mean ‘on her way here’?! She has no eyes, Finn! And Corduroy is just a head! He can’t drive either!” Nick argues back, a multitude of possible disasters appearing in front of his eyes. All of them end up with Zootopia in flames or sinking. He doesn’t know how it could sink, but it would.

Just then, from outside, the three hear the distinct sound of tires squealing, followed by what sounds almost like bowling pins being sent flying in every direction.

“Nice throw!” they hear someone shout before their voice is roughly cut off by their intimate reunion with the ground.

It rains wet chunks down below for a few seconds. Then Nick hears a voice that sends a massive chill right down his back.

“WHERE IS MY BABY?!” belows his mother from the street below in her best Todzilla roar. A few bits of the shattered glass fall away, startling Finnick as they tinkle around his paws.

Finn turns to meet Nick’s horrified expression.

“Nope!” the fennec chirps before turning tail and taking off back down the fire escape, his ears flopping gloriously in the wind. Judy sighs at the display of cowardice and turns to her fox, only to see nothing but a red tail poking out from under the couch.

The bunny starts to roll her eyes, but feels her attention suddenly drawn to the rapidly increasing rumble in the floor. Her ears dart from side to side, trying to figure out where the danger is coming from.

But it seems to be coming from all around her.

The door to Nick’s room, only having just been replaced, is sent flying off its hinges again and nearly takes out Judy as it soars. Instead it just imbeds itself in the wall.

Judy shrieks and runs around the room in panicked circles, unaware of what is trying to attack her. A few more loud booms and heavy breathing can be heard walking through the doorless doorway. The temperature in the room drops several degrees and the television even flickers slightly.

Either some sort of electric anomaly just stormed in...

Or it’s Nick’s mother.

Judy stops running long enough to take in the sight of the once-gentle vixen. She had never met Marian before while she was alive, but she had seen pictures. And compared to those pictures, the current version of Mrs. Wilde is quite jarring to the rabbit.

But it’s only really her eyes that disturb her so. Just two empty holes in her head where the viscera inside can be plainly seen. She’s missing an ear, but otherwise...she’s still a very beautiful fox. If Judy wasn’t terrified of the rage emanating off of her, she might have felt some heat in her cheeks again.

Just because she would imagine a female Nick!

No other reason.

At all.

Mrs. Wilde wields a steering wheel in one paw and the severed head of another fox in her other. Judy gasps at the sight, not knowing about Corduroy or his state of being. For all the bunny knows, the fox just decapitated a poor tod and stole his head.

What she wants with it, Judy can’t be sure.

“WHERE. IS. MY. NICKY?!” she demands with gritted teeth. Unable to see around her, she stares at nothing at all and instead waits for someone to answer her.

Judy doesn’t know if answering her is the best of ideas.

Nick’s tail agrees.

“...Mary, please! You have to control yourself! You’re going to scare your son!” comes a male voice from somewhere else in the room. Judy’s ears flick, trying to locate the source. But it becomes obvious to her that it’s the head in the wild fox’s grip that is doing the talking.

“SCARE HIM?! HE ALMOST GOT THROWN OFF THE ROOF AND THEN WOULDN’T ANSWER HIS PHONE! HE BETTER BE SCA-...”

Mrs. Wilde’s voice suddenly cuts out as she takes a deep breath in through her nose, exposing her to the many smells present in the air around her. Among them are the familiar scent of death, mixed with the smell of her own kit. The latter of those sends a bolt of lightning through her body, overriding her mind and taking control away from her.

With the scent of living meat present in her lungs, the infection takes over.

Still completely silent, Judy watches as Mrs. Wilde’s demeanor changes from upset mother to something much darker and more familiar to her. The ache in the bunny’s chest grows as she realizes what is happening.

The infection has a hold of Nick’s mother and is sending her into feral hunting mode.

And Nick is only steps away from her, hiding under the couch with his trembling tail still sticking out. The only thing preventing the vixen from reaching down and tearing into her own son is the fact that she’s blind.

“Mary?! Mary, what’s going on?! What’re you...oh no. No no no no! Sweetie, snap out of it! It’s your son, it’s your son! He’s not food!” screams the head in her grip. Without even a glance down, Mrs. Wilde drops the head and allows it to roll off to the side.  
“OW!” he complains. His companion pays no mind and gets to work using her nose, sniffing at the air and wandering around for a source of the delicious scent.

Judy realizes she’s been watching this happen while she could have been doing something to save the life of her fox.

Nick’s tail finally slips all the way under the couch.

The slight rustle his movements made catches the attentive ears of his mother, whose head whips around and points in his direction. She gets down on all fours, a low growl rumbling from the back of her throat.

She starts to prepare to attack in the direction of her prey, but is interrupted by an empty can of fish flying into her head, making a sharp ding noise. Mrs. Wilde shakes her head violently and bites around her, unaware that her attacker is on the other side of the room next to a stack of potential ammunition.

Another can smacks into her muzzle, covering it with days old fish juice. The juice fills her nostrils and seems to block her from smelling anything other than slightly fermented cod. Judy throws more and more cans at the savage husk.

Mrs. Wilde darts towards Judy, baring her teeth and letting out a horrifying cry of anger. Fearing not for her own life but for Nick’s, the bunny engages with the fox when she gets within kicking distance.

As the fox had ran towards her assailant, she had unknowingly kicked the head of her boyfriend closer to the couch. Nick peeks his face out from the cover of his hiding spot, only to see Corduroy staring back at him. The head of the fox doesn’t seem to care that there’s fresh meat right in front of him. Despite his racing heart and panicked breathing, Nick can’t help but notice how disillusioned Corduroy looks. While Nick’s mother works through her hunger-fueled rage, the new tod isn’t hostile in the slightest.

In fact, he looks more distraught than anything.

“I’m sorry Nicholas. I didn’t know this would happen. She had been so well-behaved on the phone with you, even when she knew you were still alive...I guess the sound of your voice wasn’t enough to trigger the hunt, but your scent was…” Corduroy says weakly to his mate’s kit.

Nick doesn’t dare answer, fearing that he might draw his mother back to him. But he does give the decapitated tod a nod of understanding.

“I miss my body…” Corduroy sniffles. “I feel so useless like this...this zombie thing sucks so hard...I wish I never even came back…”

Something clicks in Nick’s mind.

Rejection of the infection.

Corduroy is another husk who lost the urge to hunt! Nick looks around from under the couch, multiple plans running through his head at the same time, most of them ending with him in pieces.

While the fox head next to him grieves in silence, Nick tries to think of a way to break through to his mother. He has to convince her somehow that the infection is a bad thing and that she’s worse off for it. But what can he do?

He has to take advantage of anything he can.

And in this situation, it’s her lack of vision. She is relying on her hearing and smell to hunt. So if he can do something that will trick her into…

That.

As much as he hates what he is going to have to do to his mother’s emotions, he doesn’t know if anything else will pull her from her savage state of mind. It’s going to break her heart, but hopefully he’ll be able to apologize once she’s back in her right mind.

As long as he doesn’t mess up and get himself killed for real…

Nick turns back to Corduroy, who has taken to staring down at the floor in mental anguish. A quick click of the tongue draws the tod’s gaze to him.

Corduroy gives him a tired but questioning look

“When I give the signal, get her attention,” Nick whispers as lightly as he can. The sounds of the battle being raged on the other side of the room render most of their communication mute to the outside world. Judy and his mother are being far too loud to pick up any lingering mumblings from under such a large piece of furniture.

Corduroy tries to shake his head, but without neck muscles, just ends up rolling slightly more onto his side.

“She’ll kill you! Stay put!” he whispers back. Nick groans and rubs his face.

“Just do it! I have a plan!” Nick urges. Corduroy wants to reject this offer, but doesn’t have any better ideas to work with. He lets out a nervous sigh and lifts his brows twice.

Maybe that means ‘okay.’

Nick turns his attention to the snack bag that he had prepared for the movie. Still full of multiple foods and fish cans, it weighs a good bit. Not as much as a full grown fox of course, but it’s plenty heavy enough to make some noise if dropped from a decent height.

Using his early years as a pickpocket to his advantage, Nick slides himself soundlessly to the bag and grabs hold of it. Corduroy watches him with uncertainty in his hazel eyes.

The trembling fox slides his way out from under the couch with his bag held tightly to his chest. He catches a glimpse of his bunny fighting his mother for his sake and is momentarily struck dumb at the sheer spectacle of it all.

Judy’s such a talented fighter. Even against the larger and more unpredictable opponent, the rabbit is much too fast to catch. But she’s not hyped up on the infection’s effects like his mother is. Judy is looking visibly winded now, while the feral vixen is still going strong.

Nick knows he needs to do something before his mother manages to latch her jaws around his bunny and shakes her to pieces.

She might be dead already, but Nick knows that she can still die more. He saw the remains of those rams on the video. They aren’t ever coming back.

Nick shuffles over to his window and examines the shattered glass.

It looks broken enough already.

The only idea he has is a bit risky and stupid, but it also might work.

He turns hesitantly to the sounds of violence happening across the room. Judy is slowing down now and has only narrowly avoided the snapping jaws of his mother a few times already.

Nick looks to Corduroy and nods.

“Oh, uh...NICK! RUN! GET OUT WHILE SHE’S DISTRACTED!” the head screams overly dramatically. A fine actor he is not, but at least he got his mate’s attention. Marian spins around, losing interest in the exhausted rabbit in an instant. Judy blinks up through her slouched fighting stance, unaware of what Nick is trying to do.

Nick makes very loud, obvious stomping noises with his paws from his place in front of the window. The sound of motion does the trick and his mother is flying at him like a bullet before he can even blink.

Judy lets out an agonizing wail as she sees her fox seemingly accepting his death.

Nick holds out the bag of snacks in front of himself and whispers a silent prayer.

If she sinks her teeth into him anyway, he’s dead.

If he times this wrong, he’s dead.

If he falls with too much momentum, he’s dead and flat.

But the stars must have aligned, because his mother slams into the bag in the exact way that he had been hoping. The force of her body weight flying into him like a rocket sends him soaring backwards, his back striking the already-broken window and shattering it the rest of the way.

He’s outside now.

What a lovely evening.

He throws his limbs down and lets out an intentional wail of terror. His claws catch on the metal floor of the fire escape, slowing him down at the last minute so that he doesn’t fly off the side. Instead, he lifts the bag up and aims it down below.

A crowd of cast-covered wolf pups and their wheelchair-bound mother look up at him with pleading expressions.

“Oh, for the love of-!” he curses and aims a little more to the left.

He throws the bag down while letting out an even louder shout. As the bag falls and picks up speed, he lets his voice fade in volume. The end result is what sounds like his body falling into the street below, his scream only cutting out the instant the bag smashes into the street and explodes into a crunchy, snack filled mess.

His mother, without her vision to help her, stumbles out of the broken window and latches onto the railing. She aims her muzzle down and shrieks.

It’s a sound a kit never wants to hear coming from their mother.

“NIIIIIIIIIICKYYYYYYYYYYYYY!~” she cries, her feral nature having completely fallen away to reveal the mother underneath. Nick sits motionless on the stairs next to her, not daring to make a sound. He doesn’t want to risk exposing himself to her without knowing that she’s rejected the infection for good.

Tears fall like rain to the street below, a few falling onto the recovering pups.

The craziness of the evening finally starts to fade. A few of the undead below point up and watch the scene play out, but they don’t seem to be all that affected by Nick’s presence. In fact, they seem pretty thrilled to see him.

They do throw a few concerned glances at his mother, though.

Mrs. Wilde’s cries don’t let up. It’s almost like the light has finally been snuffed out of her world, even after losing her vision. Something inside her is breaking and Nick can’t listen to it for much longer. She might be undead but she’s still his mom.

“Nooooooo no no no...NO! Nicky...no...I can’t! I can’t! I’m a...RAAAAAAAAGH!” she bellows in barely-contained hatred of herself. Her emotions are overpowering her rotting body and words can do nothing to express how badly she’s hurting.

She resigns herself to mindless screaming and flailing, with her claws tearing at her scalp.

“I WASN’T ME! I WASN’T ME! WHAT WAS I?! WHAT IS THIS?!” she wails. Nick’s ears, folded tightly against his head to tune out some of her misery, perk up a bit as she starts to work out what he knows she needs to.

She’s starting to understand that the infection is what made her kill her only son.

“IT HUUUUURTS! IT HUUUUUUURTS! GET OUT OF MEEEEEEEEE!”

Nick watches his mother slam her fists into her skull in a rage. He can tell that his message is getting through to her. Plus, he’s at his limit for listening to her sobs.

Marian slumps over the railing and hangs there limply, unwilling to spend the energy it would require to sit down.

Behind the distraught vixen, Nick sees Judy peeking out with scared, watery eyes. From just the sounds alone, the bunny expected to witness a mess waiting for her outside the window.

What she actually sees is Nick hiding on the stairs next to his mother, who is leaning over the railing and about to fall over.

With a trembling huff and a kick of her back legs, she tries to.

Nick sees the movement out of the corner of his vision and is quick enough to grab the back of his mother’s blouse. She lets out a surprised yelp as she is pulled back onto the safety of the fire escape.

It’s Nick’s turn to shake with fear of losing his loved one. He hadn’t expected her to do something like that. If he had been only a second late, she would have ended up just like the snack bag.

“Who is…? What are…?” Marian asks with a raspy voice. Judy leans down and picks up the severed head of the red fox, placing it into the window frame next to her. Corduroy’s eyes dart all around but relax when he sees that his mate is okay.

Mrs. Wilde takes a strong whiff of the fox holding her close to his chest.

Nick’s eyes widen and he takes a deep breath, just in case his plan had failed.

He can picture the feral snarl on her face returning and her teeth slicing into his throat.

But they don’t.

He looks down into his mother’s empty eye sockets. If they had eyeballs again, he can tell that they would be expressing deep confusion and pain.

“...Nicky…?” she asks, her voice one of both agony and hope. Nick places a shaky paw onto her head and gives her remaining ear a gentle rub.

“...Hey, Mom,” he answers. His mask of unaffected bravado can hold no longer and it shatters into a million pieces. The two foxes wrap their arms tightly around each other and hold on for dear existence. It’s like the world will fall away from them if they dare let each other go for only a moment.

Judy and Corduroy watch the two embrace each other and express their emotions.

A crowd has gathered below them, a select few forming a protective shield around a strangely familiar group of recently-hospitalized wolves. But most of them are just watching in confusion. There are even some heartwarmed ‘Aww’s’ that arise from the audience. This feeling of warmth is quite surprising to the few who experience it.

“Some of them are recording. Are...we in trouble?” Corduroy asks Judy. The bunny doesn’t bother with the husks below and is content to simply watch her fox finally able to see his mother again for the first time in years.

Even if the circumstances are less than ideal, there’s nothing quite like seeing a mother and her kit reuniting.

“No idea. Don’t really care, though. Got to wrestle and Nick is safe.”

“...You didn’t touch my mate inappropriately, did you?”

“...Dude, you’re a head.”

“She likes my head just fine.”

“...What?”


	9. Here Comes the Bite Time

The sun dips behind the horizon, casting the city in shadow.

Just another night for the city that used to be bustling with living mammals.

The night life, ironically, is much more lively now that most of the population is dead.

Without the need for sleep, the residents are free to have fun at night with their friends and families. The time saved by forgoing sleep opened up a whole new world of options for those willing to seek out new activities.

For Nick, it’s quite a sight to see. He was always so used to seeing predator and prey species bickering amongst each other as they walked along the sidewalks. But now, everyone is just kind of going with the flow.

A group of schoolkits can be seen traveling together, some of them riding around on the shoulders of a much larger undead student. The one being ridden, a teenage siberian tiger, doesn’t seem to mind his classmates hanging off of him. He even has a few of the limited mobility kits held in his arms. Nick smiles when he sees that most of the students are actually prey species. Since they’re all technically predators now, it’s like an entire social barrier has been knocked over.

Previous enemies are now friends. Those who were already friends now get much more time to spend with each other. Lives ended and became deaths, but being dead somehow slowed down life so that those affected can finally enjoy the company of those around them.

If it weren’t for the whole ‘eat you in the face’ thing that the infection forces the husks to do, Nick would actually think that dying has only improved the day-to-day lives of most of the mammals in the city.

Nick looks around again and sees another pack of mammals traveling together on the street, off to bond with time they probably never had before. They’re mostly taller canines, but Nick notices that a few of them are actually hyenas. Hell, there’s even an undead weasel of some kind. Maybe it’s a stoat? They all seem to be forming a protective circle around what looks to be...is that a sheep?

The fox in the window leans on the frame of his window a bit more to get a better look.

Yeah, that’s definitely a sheep. Looks like a young one, too. And the strangest thing about him is that he doesn’t look dead. He’s fumbling with his hooves nervously and only seems to be able to shuffle his legs because of the support the others are showing him.

That...huh? Are there more animals still alive in the city?

In a moment of pure childish wonder, Nick allows himself to hope.

There’s other animals still alive besides him. And better yet, it looks like at least this sheep has found a way to live among his undead friends.

Maybe Nick isn’t the only one who knows how to break through the infection’s curse.

The sheep looks fine.

Whenever one of the other husks on the street gets too close, they’re told off by one of the sheep’s friends. The ones pushed away don’t seem to take it personally, but they do offer a few returned glances in the direction of the sheep.

“What do you see, Nicky? What’s out there?” his mother asks from her place beside him. Since Nick had brought her back inside through the window, she has refused to leave his side. Since the window is gone anyway, the two decide to just stand there together to let the calming breeze of the night flow past them. Marian can’t see what’s out there, but Nick is more than happy to paint a picture for her. She smiles gently with her head leaning against her son. Their tails swish and bump into each other every so often, but they pay them little mind.

“There’s a sheep down there...I don’t think he’s dead,” Nick says, squinting his eyes and trying to follow along with what is happening. His mother squirms a bit. Even though she’s worked past the infection’s influence for the most part, hearing about fresh meat still brings out some lingering thoughts of savagery.

“Oh...is that so? What’s he doing?” she asks nervously. Her tail wags a bit harder but Nick’s presses into it and slows it down by setting a new rhythm for it. A slight shudder passes through his mother’s body but it allows some of her tension to leak out.

“He’s...just walking with a group of friends, I think. They’re circling around him and keeping him safe. I think they’re trying to make him less nervous about moving around in the streets,” Nick explains to her. Her remaining ear perks up as she tilts her head.

“Really? And the friends are dead?”

“Yep.”

“That’s...pretty sweet, actually,” his mother ponders. The sight of a much larger husk approaching the group catches Nick’s attention and sends a shiver down his neck. It looks like a big female tiger is walking up to them like she’s not concerned about the circle of bouncers surrounding the sheep.

Nick takes a dry swallow. He really hopes he’s not about to see the poor sheep get shredded.

But to his relief, the tiger just reaches over and pats the wool poof on top of his head. The sheep looks nervous still, but bats the tiger’s massive paw away playfully. A fox from the group around the sheep steps out to give the tiger a hug.

Huh.

Maybe this city is a bit more sane than he thought.

Even now, with him exposed to the world from his missing window, a few of the undead see him and wave up with friendly smiles on their faces. Every so often one will start to get flustered at the sight of a living mammal, but seeing Nick’s mother hugging him so tightly without taking a bite of him seems to cause some internal battles to start raging inside them.

Nick’s managed to survive this long and his continued survival might actually start getting easier. As more and more mammals seem to gain control back over themselves in the face of free meat, the hostile tension in the air is lessened.

Nick can’t even remember a time when he saw his mother look so content.

If the world had never fallen to the infection, he doubts he would ever have had his mother, Judy, and Finnick in a room together.

Yet they are.

Finnick came back a little while later, after investigating the destroyed snack bag on the pavement below. He wanted to make sure Nick was okay, but was also pretty happy to see his surrogate mother back in her right mind.

Nick smiles at the memory of the two hugging it out. Despite his attitude and appearance, Finn looked just like a kit being held by his mother. His usual grumpiness dropped just long enough to give out a few happy yips as Marian spun him around. Nick might have kept in contact with his mother without actually going to see her often, but Finnick never could bring himself to talk to her. He always felt that he was just a disappointment to her for some reason. And being assured of the opposite actually took a load off of his tiny shoulders.

Finnick actually smiled like he used to when he was just a kit.

And now he’s sitting on the couch with Judy and Corduroy, seeing what videos they can share with each other on ZooTube. Corduroy, as it turns out, is a bit of a digital fox and is able to list off a ton of videos for them to watch. Finn and Judy seem to be enjoying them.

Judy throws a longing glance at Nick once in a while. Nick can tell that she wants him on the couch with her. She had also gone through a brief stage of thinking he might have died earlier, so she is desperate to cling to him and assure herself of his safety.

He will.

But his mother is still recovering from her loss of control and perceived death of her son.

“What happened?” his mother’s voice breaks him from his thoughts.

“Oh, uh...a tiger lady walked up and said hello to the pack. Sheep seemed to know her and was happy to see her. He’s still fine,” Nick tells her. His mother’s smile grows a bit and she allows herself to take a deep breath of the evening air.

Coming down from the influence of the infection has its drawbacks, according to Judy and Marian. The endless stamina fades away first, then the need to breathe normally starts to come back. If Nick didn’t know any better, he’d say that without the high of the infection, they’re plagued with some of the same vices as being alive.

But why though?

Nick can’t say for sure.

All that he knows is from what he’s seen.

From behind them, Judy lets out a wide yawn and stretches her arms out above her head. Maybe she’s actually starting to get sleepy again. Can she sleep? Nick likes to think that they might actually be able to sleep around each other, as long as they are careful and Judy doesn’t start trying to chew on him in her dreams.

But if he was also among the dead, then...they would definitely be able to cuddle.

Nick lets out a sigh and focuses on the increased beating of his heart as he thinks about his bunny. His mother smells something in the air and turns to him with a slight smirk on her face.

“So, Nicky,” she starts. Nick can already hear the teasing tone of her voice and steels himself for some good-hearted taunting. “What was that about you two not being together the last time we spoke? Because if I’m not mistaken, then you’re putting off some really strong smells right now.”

Nick almost chokes on his tongue. No amount of prep would allow him to push through his mother sniffing at his feral urge aromas.

“It’s...w-well...we weren’t,” he manages to stutter. His mother’s smirk only grows. “We really weren’t! Not when I talked to you, at least.”

“Buuuuut you wanted to be~!” she sings. Leave it to his mother to see through his masks like they’re not even there. But luckily, Nick can pick up on that thread and spin it back around her.

“You’re right. I wanted to be with her for a couple years now,” he admits. His mother’s smirk disappears and is replaced with a knowing smile.

“I could tell. Even on the phone, when you talked about her, I knew.”

“Wait...you knew I was interested in a bunny and didn’t say anything? Don’t you have a problem with this? We’re really different, especially now!” Nick argues. His mother’s brow tilts at him and makes him shut up.

“Are you trying to convince yourself that you made the wrong decision, Nicky? Because from all the little looks I know she’s giving you, I bet she would be quite upset if she heard you talking this way,” he mother scolds. Nick looks down at the window’s ledge shamefully. “The way I see it, you two connecting not in spite of your differences, but because of them. I’m no stranger to unlikely bonds myself, Nicholas. I mean, look at who I’m with now!”

Nick turns and glances at Corduroy, who seems to be in a much better mood now that he has some company to entertain. He’s off in his own little world, explaining the premise to whatever video he’s showing to Judy and Finn. He talks with so much passion that Nick can almost imagine what arm movements he would be making if he still had his body.

“It takes two opposite sides of the magnet to get stuck together. Roy is the eyes and I’m the body. We are very different, but that’s what makes us work so well together. I was content to just hide away in my apartment after I came back. While the infection made me feel good, I still couldn’t see, so I didn’t want to get into trouble. Then Roy’s head came crashing through my window. You know the first thing he said to me, Nicky?”

“What?” Nick asks, genuinely curious.

“Ow,” his mom says with a straight face. Nick turns and looks at her with an unamused expression. She tries to hold it together but breaks out into giggles and rubs his shoulder soothingly. “I’m just kidding! But seriously, he asked me if I wanted to come outside and toss him around. Some of the neighborhood kits had created a game out of throwing his head around, and he was too excited about the prospect of getting to move around again to say no. So I went outside and played with him. I couldn’t see where I was throwing, but we quickly got a system going where he would guide my aim and tell me when I was facing the right way. I hadn’t interacted with anyone since my turning, so it...it was definitely a good feeling.”

Nick rubs his mother’s back as she talks, and she leans her head into his chest a bit more, still being careful not to accidentally cut him with any of her teeth.

“That’s...I guess you two do get along pretty well, huh?” Nink inquires.

“Mhmm. I only threw his head into three different trash cans by accident!” she boasts proudly. The russet tod can’t stop the small guffaw that escapes his lips at the mental picture of his mother stumbling through a bunch of trash cans, trying to find her mate by his cries for help.

On the couch, Corduroy lets out a sneeze.

“So, what I’m saying Nicky, is that I have no problem with who you choose to be with, even if she’s just as dead as I am. If she makes you happy, then I say go for it. She saved my baby, after all. Quite a way to get on my good side, honestly,” Marian grins.

“Thanks, mom,” Nick says as he gives his mother another squeeze.

“Though I doubt my disapproval would have changed your mind,” she smirks as she takes another breath of the chilly city breeze flowing in through the missing window.

Nick smiles and stares out at the lights.

“Yeah, you’re right. It wouldn’t. But I’m glad I have it, so that we can have moments like this, with all of us here together,” Nick says as he turns his mother around and guides her back to the couch to join the rest of her family.

Outside the window, the city continues on. Dead or alive, love finds a way to march forward.

Nick guides his mother into a sitting position, almost forgetting to move Corduroy first. The body-less fox complains about his missed chance, but quickly calms down when he’s placed into the arms of his loving mate. The two share a gentle nose rub and settle in for whatever movie the family decides to pick.

Nick leans over the back of the couch, unable to fit in with everyone else already seated. Judy finds a way to maintain contact with her fox by flopping her raggedy ears up to him. Her fox smirks and wraps the ears around his neck.

Judy is content with this solution.

For now.

If she wasn’t worried about her tail falling off again, she would have simply forced him to be her seat on the couch.

“Okay, Finnick, it’s your turn!” Marian says to the diminutive fox. Finn can barely hide the mischievous smirk as he scrolls through the on-demand list with his remote and selects a movie. He had chosen it so fast that no one else had actually seen his decision.

But as the opening credits start up and the first black-and-white zombie shambles into focus, the room flies into an uproar.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!” everyone shouts at once while Finnick laughs his head off. They try to grab it from him, but he jumps onto the arm of the couch and holds it just out of their reach, waving it tauntingly out in front of himself.

His plan works at first.

Until Corduroy soars into him and sends them both flying off the armrest.

The sound of laughter brings the room to life, despite only one of its occupants having a pulse.

Their joyous noises are so overpowering that they don’t notice the small dark shape weaseling its way through the missing window and disappearing into the shadows.


	10. BIT

A sharp pain awakens Nick from the pleasant dream he had been having.

He gasps and sits up in his bed, trying to regain the rest of his consciousness. The room around him is almost entirely dark. The only light comes from the small window next to his night stand, where the glow of the night life of Zootopia is shining through brilliantly.

He’s alone in his bed.

So it was just a dream…

Nick feels a shiver passing through his body. Just seconds ago, he had been so ready. Judy’s nervous but loving eyes were locked together with his own as he held out his arm for her. She tried to go slow but his terrified trembling was impeding her work. The two had talked for so long before the final decision had been made.

Then she finally brought her zombie rabbit teeth down into his flesh.

Nick pants a bit, his body feeling overheated for some reason. Outside his bedroom door, he can hear his mother, Corduroy and Judy chatting calmly. Finnick is surprisingly still here. Usually he would have left by now.

Another voice joins the muffled conversation that they’re having; one that Nick does not recognize. It’s feminine and very gentle in nature. She speaks clearly, but her tone is so soft that she’s almost whispering.

Is this...Finnick’s new mate?

When had she arrived?

Maybe Finn wanted his surrogate mother to meet her, since he no longer carried the misconception that he was nothing but a rotten kit.

A small smile reaches Nick’s muzzle. He is quite excited to meet her as well. A vixen who can bite off such an important part of his brother’s body and still draw affection from him must be someone special.

The russet tod goes to sit up but a sharp pain in his arm makes him falter.

“Ow!” he hisses and tries to look down. The room is too dark for him to see his body so he reaches over to the nightstand and clicks on the light.

He looks down.

He’s greeted by the sight of a small bite mark, blood flowing freely from it and staining his fur.

Nick’s eyes shoot wide open and suddenly he’s fully awake. His body moves on autopilot as he stumbles up from his bed and over to the bathroom, clicking more lights on as he goes. Once he can see where he is going, he slams the faucet lever up and dunks his wounded limb into the cool jet of water.

Pain shoots up his shoulder from the blast of freezing water running over the puncture marks. Nick’s heart beats faster than it ever has before as he lets the blood wash off. He wants to believe that he’s dreaming so badly, but the continuing pain convinces him of the truth.

He pulls his arm out of the water and brings it close to his face for a closer look.

His heart skips a beat.

It’s a bite.

It’s definitely a bite.

He can plainly see the pattern of the teeth that dug into his skin.

Nick’s legs fall out from under him and his back slams into the wall as he collapses backwards. His eyes are still locked to the cursed shape of oozing puncture holes. The room around him loses some of its color as the gravity of the situation starts to sink in.

He’s been bitten.

Someone snuck into his room and sunk their teeth into him.

A shudder wracks his body and jumpstarts his screams of horror. He can’t even tell what noises he’s making. All that he can hear is a high-pitched ringing is his head, overwhelming any kind of rational thought.

The blood trickles lower down his elbow and drips onto the bathroom tile.

He feels sick. Is this what the infection feels like? Is it already starting?

The screams echoing around him grow louder. Warm tears begin to soak his muzzle, followed by a violent shaking that spreads down his chest and to every one of his limbs.

More voices join the scream but he can’t understand what they’re saying. An urgent pounding on wood joins the chorus of sounds. But Nick can’t focus on anything other than the death sentence turning his fur an even deeper red.

This is it.

He’s going to die.

The infection is going to spread throughout his body, shut it down, and bring him back as something much darker.

It’s not a tender moment like the one that happened in his dream. He doesn’t have Judy with him to guide him to the light and back. He didn’t choose this.

Instead of being a meaningful moment, this is just a random act of spite.

Who bit him? The marks are definitely fresh. It couldn’t have been Judy or anyone else in the other room, or he would have heard the door open or shut.

But does it really matter who did it?

It won’t change his fate.

With a violent heave, Nick leans forward and spews out a torrent of stomach acid. The foul bile splatters onto the tile and pools around him. A few pained coughs escape his throat and the room around him begins to spin.

The banging on the door turns into a quiet series of clicks.

Within seconds, the door swings open and numerous other bodies enter his once peaceful domain of rest. Shadows rush up the very edge of the fox’s vision but he doesn’t dare look up at them. The ringing in his ears grows so loud that he can’t even hear his own pulse anymore.

“Nick, what is-?!” comes the voice of the one he loves so dearly. A smaller set of steps scamper up to him and he feels a pair of paws pulling him back into a sitting position. Once the marks on his arm are exposed to the recent arrivals, a series of gasps ring out.

Nick’s eyes are still glued to the bite. Such a small little injury. But he knows that he has no hope now. He’s turning and there’s nothing left to be said in the matter. He wanted to keep fighting. But someone took that decision away from him.

“...Oh, man. Nick…” comes the deep voice of his brother, the contrasting pitch able to break through the incessant ringing. Nick finally manages to tear his eyes away from the bite, turning them to the mammals standing around him. His gaze is empty but terrified.

Judy has her paws held over her mouth as she glances between her fox and his arm. A furious tremble starts to spread through her body. She knows how much he wanted to keep living. And without a clear target to focus her spite, she has to simply let her anger boil inside her.

Finn is giving the floor a grim expression, trying to hide his emotions in the presence of the others. The smell of the bloody meat doesn’t phase him in the slightest.

His mother is facing the wrong way with Corduroy in her arms. The older fox tries to see what’s going on, but he’s just a head. He has little to no control over which direction he’s facing.

Luckily, an unfamiliar vixen turns his mother so that she’s facing the right way. True to Finn’s word, she’s quite tall for an arctic; she’s probably as tall as Nick himself. And she has a forlorn look on her face. It seems that she, like Finnick, is already immune to the influence of the infection. Maybe finding another like minded fox is what convinced him to give her another chance.

Nick gives the crowd a tired scoff, which only concerns them more.

“Welcome to the family, I guess...right…?” the tod mumbles.

“Nicky? Nicky, what’s goin on? I can’t see! What’s-?” his mother’s voice breaks through to him. Nick’s tears begin flowing heavily. The dam bursts and his mask crumbles into microscopic pieces.

He can’t stand the sight of his mother worried over him, even if she no longer has eyes to look at him with. Judy’s fuming is a bit better of a reaction but the combined sympathy is causing a feeling inside of him that he doesn’t know how to process.

Finnick’s fist slams into the tile next to him.

“DAMN IT! WHO DID IT?!” his deep voice bellows as he spins to the rest of the family.

“Who did what?! What’s happening?!” his mother demands again. Finnick goes to answer her with a rant, but is cut off by Judy’s cold, maliciously dark voice.

“Someone bit Nick,” she mumbles. Her eyes no longer carry the warmth they had. Instead, her gaze is icy and piercing. Marian lets out a sharp gasp and her paw shoots to her cheek. Without saying anything else, the blind vixen stumbles forward and falls to her knees with Corduroy in her grip. She sets the severed head next to her so that she can throw her arms around her only son.

Even to his undead mother, Nick’s body feels cold to the touch. What concerns her even more is the deadened expression in his eyes and his refusal to reciprocate the hug.

“Oh, my sweet kit...who did this…?” Marian asks desperately. From the floor, Corduroy gives Nick a look of knowing pity. The feeling of helplessness in the face of the affection is one that every other mammal had gone through, though some had to deal with it for longer than others.

“Dunno…” Nick mumbles weakly. His eyes remain unfocused as he starts to fade in and out of clarity. Marian finds that she has to work harder to support his weight. Finnick turns just as his brother blacks out.

“SOMEONE! WHO DID-?! ONE OF YOU BIT HIM!” he belts out, losing himself to the temper he has struggled with his entire time in the world. The unfamiliar vixen steps down and quickly wraps the bundle of piss and teeth in a fluffy hug. Finnick calms down uncharacteristically quickly while pressed into the chest of his mate.

Marian leans her son against her shoulder and rocks him side to side, a gentle lullaby falling out of her lips. The wound on Nick’s arm had stopped bleeding now, a fact that doesn’t escape Judy’s attentive oversight.

The bunny squats down next to the mother and her kit, picking up Nick’s arm to examine it.

She gives the wound a quick sniff before her eyes shoot open and her ears go rigid. The injured limb of her love falls gently back onto his lap and she jumps to her feet.

The others watch her storm out of the bathroom. None of them seem to know what she’s doing or what to say to her, until she begins tearing Nick’s bedroom to shreds in search of something. Finnick leaves Corduroy and his mother to watch over Nick’s unconscious body and runs after the firestorm that is Judy. The vixen watches from the doorway, unsure of how to react to such sudden and destructive behavior.

“BUNNY COP! What is goin’ on?! What’re you doin’?!” the fennec demands as he dodges the bits of mattress and stuffing flying out behind her. Judy works tirelessly, following her nose towards whatever it is she’s so desperate to find.

“The one who bit him is still in the room! They're in the bed somewhere!” she screams back at him. The moment Finnick hears this, a terrible growl begins to rumble in his throat. The diminutive fox has the least amount of hunting experience as a husk, but he can feel the infection combining with his anger to drive him into a state of enhanced violence.

He takes his first whiff of the room.

True to Judy’s word, there’s a scent that doesn’t belong. Someone is in here with them and their scent is strangely...appetizing to him.

The vixen takes another step back into the bathroom, not wanting to see her mate lose himself again. And under the effects of the infection, Finnick’s demeanor changes to that of a demon.

With a voice as deep as Finnick’s, his growl is absolutely ground-shaking. As it grows in volume and rattles the floors and windows around the room, Judy takes her first look back to see what’s going on.

What she sees almost scares her away from her task.

The small fennec is hunched over with his ears splayed back, half of his body covered in shadows. She flinches as his eyes turn up to meet hers. Somehow, against what she believes to be possibly for even the infection, Finnick’s eyes glow bright red.

The snarl on his face promises nothing but agony and destruction for whoever he finds.

Before Judy can see what the rest of him looks like, the fox leaps under the bed and loses himself to his feral instincts. The rabbit’s ears pick up the sounds of tearing fabric and snapping metal. Despite her own fury against the one who hurt her fox, she can’t help feeling a pang of sympathy for the creature.

Seeing Finnick like that was almost enough to make her bolt back to the bathroom.

With a shake of her head and a flop of her ears, she gets back to work. The smell grows stronger the deeper she cuts into the mattress, so she digs in more and more. Up ahead of her, she sees something moving to get away from her.

“GET BACK HERE!” she commands as her claws pull the mattress apart at lightning speed. The smell of Nick’s assailant is so strong now that she can taste it. Why does it smell so delicious? Something panics in front of her and scrambles madly.

Just as she’s about to wrap her claws around the unknown intruder, a paw bursts up through the bottom of the mattress, latches onto the stranger’s body and yanks him back out. A terrified squeal meets her ears as some of the light from the bathroom becomes visible. Judy pushes forward and crawls out of the hole in the bottom of the bed.

Outside, the rabbit is treated to the sight of Finn’s mate holding her smaller partner back as he fights to get at the dark figure curled into the corner. His cursing and feral barking fill the air of the room with a murderous intent unlike anything Judy has ever been around for.

And she went toe-to-toe with Marian.

Finn’s eyes glow bright red still, but with every comforting stroke of the ears his mate gives him, the color fades a little more. Before long, he’s looking closer to his usual self and is left panting with exhaustion. The effects of the infection seem to be leaving his system again, and his body is not handling it well.

The fennec eventually has just enough energy left in him to give the intruder a continuous death glare.

Mrs. Wilde’s eyeless face peeks out from the bathroom, Nick’s head resting on her lap now. Corduroy tries to roll himself out of the bathroom to take a closer look at what’s been going on, but hasn’t quite gotten the hang of it.

Judy turns her attention to the trembling form of the soon-to-be-mulched mammal cowering against the wall. His smell reaches her nose again and makes it twitch. Why does this animal smell so tantalizingly good?

She moves closer and finally gets a good look at him.

A bolt of recognition passes through her as her eyes gaze over the body of a certain weasel that she’s come to know from her time as a cop.

Of course it would be him.

Seeing him nearly every week wasn’t enough?

He had to come in and ruin Nick’s life?

“Duke,” Judy growls. She almost lets herself tell Finn’s mate to let him go, but stops herself at the last second. There’s something strange about the weasel.

It’s not just the nervous smile he’s trying to give her.

It’s the fact that he’s still breathing.

His heart is just beating.

This sneaky, conniving rat of a crook is alive.

A string of drool leaks from Judy’s lip. The weasel sees this and drops his smile in favor of pressing himself even deeper into the corner.

“H-hey...Cottontail…” he murmurs. Judy takes another step towards him. He shrinks even further. A deep, righteous sense of fury longs to make the rabbit tear into the weasel like he’s a late-night snack and nothing more. But as she feels her hunger rising, she realizes that it’s just the infection trying to take control of her again.

It almost did, too. With her emotions out of whack, she was so ready to just devolve into her old self. But if she did, who says she would stop at Weaselton? What if she decided to go after Nick next?

“It’s Judy, Duke. Don’t call me that. Explain yourself.”

Duke swallows wetly and peeks to either side of him. On one side is the demonic fennec fox and his much taller arctic fox girlfriend. To the other side is a partially opened door.

Weaselton looks like he might bolt for the door. That is until he sees a maniacal looking severed fox head rolling its way in front of his only escape. The head stops rolling and just stares at him with a hungry glint in its eye.

Duke realizes that no matter what he does at this point, he’s doomed. His unkempt head hangs low and he lets himself lay down in preparation for the pain to come.

“I…”

“You what?” Judy demands.

“I couldn’t wake him up. He was having a dream or something and I tried shoving him and slapping him and all that. But he kept snoozing. So...I bit him.”

Judy blinks, an important little detail finally connecting in her mind.

“I saw you two on TV. Hugging and smooching and whatever. I thought I was the only one still alive...but there you two were, acting all cozy with each other even though you’re dead and he’s alive. So I figured that you guys must have figured out something that I hadn’t. Been alone this whole time, hiding when I can. It’s been hard, you know, trying to-!”

“Shhhhut up!” Judy barks and holds up a paw for some silence.

The weasel gulps and complies, afraid of how many ways she could destroy him if he annoys her any more than he already has.

“You’re alive.”

Duke looks confused but nods.

“You’re not infected.”

Duek shakes his head.

“So you biting Nick...he’s not infected then?” Judy finally asks, a spark of hope igniting in her icy blue heart. The weasel opens his mouth like he’s about to crack some sort of joke about Judy infecting him herself through alternative means, but wisely decides to stay quiet.

Another shake of the head.

Finnick finally manages to go limp in his mate’s grasp at these words. The sense of relief spreading throughout the room is so thick that even Duke feels some of his anxiety fading away.

“What’s going on out there?” Marian calls from the bathroom.

“The bite was from a living mammal. Nick’s not infected!” Judy allows herself a chirp of happiness as she runs over to her fox and gives him the biggest hug she can manage. She stays away from the open wound on his arm, though, so that none of her infected fluids can enter his body that way.

“Oh! Thank goodness!” Marian cheers right into Judy’s ear. The rabbit cringes a bit but doesn’t dare let go of her love.

“...So what do we do with the weasel?” Finn calls from the bedroom. Without even turning away from her fox, she calls back the one response she feels will frighten some damned sense into the crook.

“Ice ‘em!” she replies.

A sharp intake of air reaches her ears, satisfying at least a tiny fraction of her lust for vengeance against Weaselton.

“How?”

“Nick has a freezer. Just shove him in there!”

“NOOO! WAIT, I CAN-ulk!”

Judy smiles as she watches the vixen stomp out of the bedroom with the struggling pest dangling from her grip by his neck. Finnick follows behind her proudly, though he may just be staring up at her posterior-yep. That’s definitely what he’s doing.

Judy ignores everything else around her and gives her fox a warm nuzzle.

For a moment, she lost herself.

But everything turned out okay once again.

Nick’s safe.

So she’s happy!

B-bmp!


	11. The Talking Dead

Upon opening his eyes, Nick doesn’t sit back up or startle.

He takes a deep breath and tries to take in some of his surroundings. He feels that he’s back on the couch now, with his old blanket covering him. So someone must have picked him up and moved him. Last night wasn’t a dream, was it?

He’s dead now.

The ache in his arm is still present, even if it feels like it’s wrapped in something. The fox lifts his arm in front of his muzzle and sighs when he sees that the bite indeed happened. He doesn’t feel sick anymore, so the infection must have already finished him off. He must have died in his sleep and the others are just waiting to welcome him to being one of the undead.

He’s actually relieved.

It’s finally over. He doesn’t have to keep worrying about how much dying and turning will hurt him anymore. The infection’s already swirling in his rotting brain somewhere, and he already doesn’t approve of it. Better yet, he doesn’t even feel the intense hunger that Judy described feeling when she woke up for the first time.

He feels oddly warm for being a corpse, but maybe that’s just an effect of the infection trying to make its host comfortable. Nick doesn’t really care anymore.

It’s like a giant weight has been lifted off of his shoulders.

He can be with his family now, without having to worry about catching anything from them. He can snuggle with Judy! Maybe he can get that kiss now, too? Now that they’re finally on even ground, he can show his bunny some proper affection.

Despite being dead, his mood is lifting by the second.

He doesn’t care who bit him. Hell, he would thank them if he knew who it was! If he had known passing on and turning would be as easy as going to sleep and waking back up, he would have done it right away! To hell with having a heartbeat!

Nick finally starts to sit up, his movements drawing the attention of someone sitting on the couch with him. Before he can see who it is, a fluffy grey projectile collides with him and sends him straight back down into the brown couch cushion.

His one and only bun buries her face into his chest and rubs his scent all over herself as if it’s the last time she’ll ever be able to do so. He gives her a pleasant backrub as she covers him in warm hugs.

Warm?

That’s new.

Or...wait, is it?

“Hey, Carrots!” Nick chirps happily down to his bunny. Judy looks up at him with a confused look for some reason.

“Uh...hey, Slick. You...feelin’ okay?” she asks cautiously. Nick leans back against the pillow and smiles wide, content with his current state of being. Being dead isn’t so bad, really, especially with such cute company around.

“Yep! Pretty good. I thought you said I was going to be hungry!” he laughs. Judy’s confused gaze worsens and she goes as far as tilting her head at him.

“...H-hungry…?”

“Yeah, you know. When you first woke up, you ran off and ate out that landlady of yours. I might be a bit hungry, but nowhere near enough to go tearing into someone.”

“First, of all, it’s just ‘ate’, not ‘ate out’. Second of all...you’re not hungry because…” she tries to say, but squirms a bit and hesitates.

Nick’s ears fold back as he realizes that he’s in for some bad news.

“Because…?”

“Because you’re still alive.”

…

Huh.

Why is that so disappointing?

Nick’s eyes glaze over as he processes what he’s been told. So he’s not dead and he hasn’t turned. All of the feelings of relief deflate back out of him like a torn parade float. The sensation of danger and of not belonging swarms back in and fills him with a tired ache.

“...Oh…” he manages to mumble as he turns his focus to the ceiling fan. Under his chin, he can feel his bunny giving him a worried stare. Why would he be so disappointed to be told that the bite hadn’t been fatal? Didn’t he want to stay alive?

“Nick...are you okay…?” Judy asks softly. Her fox gives a weak grunt and shrugs his shoulders half-heartedly. The world that had finally started to gain back some color and excitement for him turns back into a dull grey.

“But...why...what’s wrong?” she asks with some more urgency as she gives Nick a small shake. His body moves, but his eyes remain locked on the ceiling. It’s like he doesn’t want to acknowledge his surroundings. He just wants to go back to thinking he was dead and all of the stress was over for him.

“I thought it was over,” he finally mutters. Judy’s tall ears perk up as she barely manages to make out his dark whispers. The ears flop down behind her back as she understands what is actually bothering him so badly.

“...Oh…” Judy answers.

The two sit in silence for a while, Judy watching over her fox as he goes through the mental anguish that comes with realizing that he’s been denied his end. She wants to comfort him more, but there’s not much she can say that will help him. He’s upset that last night’s bite was nothing more than an idiotic decision with no real consquence. She can’t change the fact that he’s still alive and she’s not.

Unless she bites him herself.

And after everything, she really doesn’t know if she would be able to go through with that.

“Judy?” his voice interrupts her thoughts suddenly.

“Yes?”

“Can you turn me?” he asks, completely seriously and without a hint of teasing in his voice. Judy flinches hard and sits up, looking down at him. He looks back up at her, but there’s a disturbing lack of fire in his eyes. His gaze is clouded over and he looks like something inside of him has died. The cheerful and pleasant fox that had woken up not ten minutes ago is missing.

In its place is this shell of a tod.

Judy gulps, trying to calm down the anxious tremble that had started in her body. He’s totally sure about this now and she can’t help the feeling of hurt that hits her. Just last night, she had watched him lament about his inevitable doom, but now he’s suffering for the exact opposite reason.

“Uhm...Nick...I don’t really think that-!”

“Please…?” There’s a pleading look on his face now and the start of some tears can be seen shimmering in his eyes. The ache in Judy’s chest grows at the sorry sight of her love holding so much pain inside himself.

She wants so badly to heal him, but to do so would also hurt him beyond what she would probably be capable of handling.

“Nick...I…” she stutters. She sees a tear leak down Nick’s face and her resolve crumbles a bit more.

“It’s okay. I want it. I don’t want this stress anymore. Please, Carrots. I’ll be okay,” he begs. A few more tears trickle down and stain the cushion below.

The sounds of approaching steps break Judy’s attention away from the fox under her. The newest door to the apartment opens and the rest of the family walks in with bags upon bags of groceries held in their grips. Leading the pack is the new vixen, followed by her mate far below her waistline. After the first two, Nick’s mother and Corduroy make up the tail end of the procession. Even Corduroy has a couple bags held in his teeth from his place in Marian’s arm. The blind mother had apparently been using Finn’s giant ears as a guide, the tips of both bent backwards to show her the way.

The leading vixen stops suddenly when she sees the compromising position Judy and Nick are in. This causes Finnick to collide face-first with her rump, though that might have been completely on purpose. Marian feels her son’s ears stop and halts before she can trip on anyone. Her empty sockets blink in confusion, but Corduroy gives a small wiggle of his eyebrows to the couch-bound lovers.

Judy feels the ever-infuriating heat in her cheeks again and lets out a small groan.

“Hey...everyone…” Judy laughs awkwardly as she slowly scoots her way off of Nick. The longing look in his eyes as she leaves is almost enough to shatter her heart into pieces. He tries to reach up to her just as she slides all of the way off but misses. He pouts a bit and returns his gaze to the ceiling.

“Hey, Nick!” comes the boisterous voice of the fennec. He’s quick to leap up on the armrest and smirk down at his bigger brother. “You scared us, Nicky Nick! Thought you were a goner for sure!”

Finnick’s laughter becomes the only sound in the room. The others pick up on the strange tension among them and are wise enough to keep quiet.

“Wish I had been,” Nick says darkly. Fennec’s chuckles die down as he tries to understand what his brother had said. But when it clicks, his face turns from one of mirth to one of confusion and anger.

“What? What the hell? Where’d that come from?” the fennec demands coldy. Nick gives him an empty glance and huffs. The lack of warmth or familiarity in Nick’s eyes sends a shiver down the back of the smaller fox.

That’s not his brother.

“What’s going on?” Marian’s voice comes in. She walks a few steps further into the room, Corduroy leaning one way or the other to guide her direction.

“Nick’s saying he wishes that bite had been real!” Finn barks down at his brother. Nick doesn’t even flinch at the sudden invasion of space.

Nick finally conveys another emotion besides melancholy.

“What do you mean ‘not real’? I got the bite. Maybe I just haven’t died yet?” he says with some hope starting to reappear in his voice.

“It wasn’t a zombie that bit you, though,” Judy corrects from her side of the couch. The russet fox’s ears flick down to her and he offers his bunny a confused look.

“...Who was it then?”

“Go check your freezer and you’ll find out,” Finnick growls. Nick’s eyes shoot open and he instantly flies off the couch, his legs scrambling in a mad dash towards his refrigerator. Within three seconds he has it open and sees…

...Nobody.

“Where is…?” Nick mumbles in confusion. Finnick barks out a few laughs and slaps his knees, though a bop to the head courtesy of his mate quickly shuts him up.

“No, we didn’t put him in the freezer,” Judy sighs irritably. “We just threatened to. You know, like back in Mr. Big’s mansion. Yeah...you get it...aaaanyway, he’s actually under the strainer that’s under the microwave. Had to keep him secured somehow and we needed something with air holes.”

Nick blinks and turns his head to the stove. Just like Judy said, there’s a misplaced spaghetti strainer being held down on top of the stove by the heavy microwave.

The fox moves closer and peers in through the holes of the strainer, his eyes widening in surprise when he sees who’s inside.

“Weaselton?” Nick says to himself as he examines the sleeping crook. Apparently Duke had gotten tired of trying to get out during the night and had fallen asleep on top of the stove. It’s just a good thing no one was feeling cruel enough to turn the stovetop on.

Nick reaches up and removes the microwave and strainer so that there’s nothing restraining the weasel.

The sounds of movement break through Duke’s slumber and jolt him awake. He almost bolts, but stops when he sees Nick staring down at him with a lifted brow.

“Necktie! It’s you! Those crazies you live with almost froze me to death! Yipe! There they are now! Hide me! HIDE ME!” he screams as his snake-like body folds into a ball behind Nick’s body. The larger fox looks back to the undead roommates watching him.

Judy and the vixen look ashamed of themselves.

Finnick and Corduroy look like they’re about to bust a gut.

His mother doesn’t look.

“Woah, Weaselton. They’re not going to hurt you. Wait...you’re the one that bit me?” Nick asks incredulously. Duke peeks up from his cowardly ball of safety.

“...Kinda...but I was just trying to wake you up! And, if you ask me, you deserved it...at least a little…”

Nick gives him an increasingly annoyed look.

“What?! You almost had me killed! Don’t think I’ll forget that little abuse of power! You two are lucky I didn’t report you and your little mob connection!” Duke spits, not realizing that he’s only digging himself into a deeper hole.

“You’re lucky I didn’t bite your head off last night!” Finnick barks from the couch. The weasel lets out another frightened shriek and hides behind Nick again.

“Hey, now, enough of that! We’ve had enough biting around here...for now,” Nick says while giving Judy a sly look. Judy ducks down behind the couch and hides her burning cheeks.

Marian lets out a sigh and finds her way to the couch to sit down. The only one left standing now is the vixen, who takes to leaning against the armrest to be close to her mate. From his place in the kitchen, Nick can just make out the tips of Finn’s ears flicking happily in her presence.

Wow, she’s able to calm him down and make him happy. She’s already a better influence on him than anybody else he’s hung around since he was a kit.

Nick can’t stop the smile tugging at his lips.

He feels a tap on his back. Behind him, Duke is still curled up like a furry cinnamon bun, but has ventured enough out of himself to whisper to the fox looming over him.

“H-hey. Can we talk somewhere? Away from them? They scare the hell out of me,” he mumbles softly.

“If you have to ask me something, you can ask in front of them. They’re my family,” Nick stares firmly. Duke’s eyes bug out a bit more than normal.

“Uhhh...you know how dangerous being around them is, right? Even if they’re family, it just takes a tiny bite or scratch and you’re done! Gonzo! Biting the dirt!” Weaselton’s arms flail dramatically as he speaks. Nick just gives him an unimpressed look.

“Actually, the only thing they’re biting right now looks to be salmon filets. And if you’re hungry, you can have one, too. As long as you promise to keep those little dagger teeth to yourself from now on,” Nick offers. He turns away from the weasel and goes to join his family. They look to be watching cartoons; no doubt Judy’s pick.

“Is...there something to drink…?” Duke’s voice pipes up from behind him, though it’s much softer now.

“Got some carrot juice on the bottom shelf in the fridge. And if that’s not good enough for you, you can-!”

“No, no! It’s fine...thanks…” the weasel whispers. Nick feels a twinge of guilt eating away at him for treating the smaller mammal like he was nothing more than a crook. And while he might have usually been, Nick had noticed that they stopped seeing him around. It was almost like the weasel had fallen off their criminal radar.

Nick sits himself down on the ground, in front of the couch where Judy is sitting. To his dismay, she scoots back just the tiniest amount from him. When he looks up at her, he sees her eyes turning away from him and back up to the television.

His chest hurts.

From the corner of his vision, Nick sees the aforementioned weasel sneaking alongside the wall, just close enough to see the television. He has a box of carrot juice clutched to his chest so tightly that it might pop any second.

The others on the couch turn their heads towards the newest arrival in the room.

Marian turns her head the other way.

Duke freezes up as he’s suddenly fixed with four sets of undead eyes. His legs tremble so badly that he is forced to fall back against the wall and sit down.

The stare-off lasts only a few moments, after which the occupants of the couch turn their attention back to the television. A massive sigh of relief leaves Duke’s chest, making him look like a shriveled up balloon.

Nick waves the little white flag of truce by giving the weasel a small chunk of salmon. Finnick starts to growl but receives a small smooch on his ear that draws his attention away.

Duke doesn’t look like he knows what to do with the fish. It’s almost like he’s never had it before.

“It’s just fish,” Judy says out of nowhere. Duke looks up to her with an uncertain crease in his brow.

“It’s not cooked…”

“What, never had sushi?” Nick chuckles, trying to ease the tension.

“Never had it cooked, neither. Could never afford it. Unless someone happened to throw a rotting piece at my head,” he mumbles before accepting the food. Nick and Judy’s ears fall.

Duke settles into his little spot against the wall and takes a few cautious nibbles of the filet. Once he gets a good taste, he attacks it. Nick can’t help feeling good about his little act of kindness.

The salmon is finished in minutes, the smacking sounds of Duke’s jaws doing little to distract the other from their TV time. Even Finnick seems to be pretty engrossed in the brightly colored show. It seems his mate is doing wonders to help him let go of his tough-tod persona. Never before has Nick seen his brother smiling so pleasantly while in the presence of others. For once in his life, no one is judging him.

The juice box is opened next and Nick can’t help but cringe every time the weasel takes a noisy slurp. The straw for his box must have been broken slightly and a lot of air is getting through, making it hard for Duke to pull any liquid up.

But no one else cares in the slightest. Judy even has a cute little smirk on her face, one that vanishes a bit when Nick looks up at her.

Ouch.

The fox sighs again and retreats a bit into himself.

This sucks. He shouldn’t have said anything to her. All he did was make things awkward between them.

Oh, why couldn’t Duke have been infected? The only animal so far to creep through their missing window and the little bugger happens to be one of the few things in the city left with a heartbeat.

“So, Dick, was it?” Nick hears his mother ask in his general direction. Finnick sniggers under his breath at this.

“Uhm...Duke, actually,” the weasel corrects with a surprising amount of sincerity in his voice. Nick’s seen him go off on much larger mammals for making the same mistake. Duke might still be alive, but something inside of him has definitely changed.

“Oh! I’m sorry! That’s rude of me. Anyway, Duke. What brings you here? It can’t have just been to bite my son and wander back out,” Marian chuckles with a tiny bit of coldness in her voice. No doubt some lingering emotion from the night before.

Duke takes a hasty sip of his juice to give himself a few more moments to collect his thoughts.

“Well...like I said last night during all that madness, I thought I was the only one left for a while. Thought it was hopeless for me...but then I saw Necktie on TV, squeezing the tail off of Flopsy over there.”

A sharp glare winds his usual taunting tone back a few notches.

“Right, sorry. Erm...Judy, I think. But what I noticed was that somehow, you two were acting like buddies even though Judy was one of the living dead. And I was like...what the hell? What’s going on? Why isn’t she eating his heart out? I thought maybe I just missed a few things, like maybe Nick was dead, too. But after that thing on TV happened, I noticed more and more dead ones acting different. Like...they weren’t so dead anymore. They stopped chasing me as much when they caught me stealing some food. Then they even started talking to me. Calling to get my attention about stuff. And of course I thought it was just a new trick they picked up to lure in meat. But they kept talking even when they lost sight of me.”

The mammals in the room listen to his recollection of the events leading him to Nick’s room with rapt attention. For Nick, it’s the first perspective of life out in the city that he’s gotten from someone with a pulse.

“What did they say?” asks Finnick’s mate. Nick curses at how little he knows about someone so important to his brother.

“They said stuff about some sort of revival program. I guess a bunch of the undead are starting to gain their senses back and are apparently starting a system where the living are preserved so that they can keep their species alive. Or so they said. I don’t know if I believe it. I definitely didn’t believe it at first, but…”

The weasel stops and looks around at the family huddled around the couch listening to him. He curls a bit further into himself and hugs his juice.

“Just don’t know anymore. As amazing as having an actual reason to keep living would be, I don’t want to get my hopes up again,” he sighs, leaning his head back against the wall.

Nick chews on his lip, thoroughly engrossed in thought. If what Duke is saying is true, and the dead truly are trying to conserve the lives of the uninfected, then that would put quite a bit of pressure on him.

His decision to turn isn’t so easy anymore.

“But...why would they want that?” Nick asks suddenly, drawing the attention to himself.

“Maybe…” Judy offers. “More mammals are like us than we thought? We know already that we can’t have kits once we die. And without more kits, our species will all die with us.”

“They’re trying to save the world, I think,” Marian says with a small smile. Corduroy bumps into her a few times for some reason...oh, he just wants some more juice. Where is that even going? He doesn’t have a stomach for it to-

The sound of liquid trickling onto his nice brown couch sends a massive cringe through the fox’s body.

His poor couch…

“Or they’re trying to feed it,” Duke mutters darkly. Everyone looks back to the weasel and the sudden attention spooks him slightly.

“Rude,” the vixen mumbles. Finnick nods with a nasty snarl on his face. Duke throws his arms up into the air in exasperation.

“Well what am I supposed to think?! I’ve been surviving by the skin of my teeth for weeks now! Why should I just up and trust a group of mammals whose only interactions with me so far have ended with near-death experiences?!” he complains.

“...Sorry,” the vixen whispers. Duke is surprised by her genuine apology towards him. It seems like it’s the first time he’s ever had one directed at him. He deflates again and drops his arms.

“Man, I...I’ve just been trying so hard. After all the crap I’ve been out through, I don’t want to just throw it away at the first sign of hope.”

“Why are you trying so hard?” Nick inquires. “Why not just...let it happen?”

Judy flinches back just a bit more.

Duke gives him a wide-eyed look of disbelief.

“...Because I want to keep living? Geez, I thought you would get it, out of anyone. I don’t want to just let go of the life I was just starting to build. How funny is that, huh? I finally try to clean up my act and go straight, and then the world just decides to fall apart around me. Can’t help feel that it was just...waiting for me to try. It wanted to let me have something good so it could snatch it away…” Duke laughs darkly as his mood plummets. The air on the room grows several times heavier as they listen to him spill his still-functioning guts.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean-!” Nick tries to say.

“And then I have to hear you talking like your life isn’t worth working for anymore? You? One of the ones who got himself out, went clean and is living the best life? Give me a break! What could you possibly be missing that being dead would give you? Huh, Necktie?!”

“The ability to kiss my bunny, for starters.”

Duke recoils at this, looking between the fox and his rabbit.

“Two, it would mean an end to all this constant stress! Three, I’d finally be able to walk on the street without some random bonehead taking a chunk out of me!” Nick ends up yelling, causing the mammals around him to flinch back.

Duke looks down.

“...I always wanted to have a kit,” he mumbles. Nick stops his rant and listens.

“I always thought it was impossible for someone like me. I’m just a rat, just a crook, always the common thief who ends up on the wrong side of the law. You think foxes have it bad? Weasels are literally used to describe sniveling, cowardly behavior. And I thought you two were just like me. Just a couple of foxes, cheating the system that cheated us all out of a decent living. But then she came into your life, and all of sudden, you just...broke out. I couldn’t believe it, Necktie. One of us, helping save the city and becoming a cop yourself. I thought maybe...if someone like you could get out and clean up, then maybe I could, too.”

Judy watches the weasel with a hurt expression, starting to understand some of the reason as to why she and Nick were always having to chase him down.

“So I tried. Oh man, I tried. Stopped pawning off my bootlegs, stopped accepting odd jobs from strangers in back alleys, even got some new clothes. Hell, I actually managed to land a job! It was just a plumber’s assistant in an area with much larger mammals, but it was still something. But then the end of the world happened and I watched everything I worked for just fade away into dust.”

Duke turns his head and leans it on his arm, trying to hide the tear that he rubs onto his paw.

“Duke…” Nick tries to say, but is again interrupted.

“So you might have your reasons for dying. I can’t really blame you for it. I know how much Cottontail over there means to you. But if there’s the slightest chance that my life might still have some value to someone...if I can help in any way...I want to keep trying. I thought you might want to try with me. That’s why I came over here in the first place. That, and...well...I wanted your opinion on if I should call these folks or not. Seemed like an obvious death trap to me, but after watching you guys interact like a normal family, I don’t...I don’t know now.”

Duke finishes and takes a few more sips of his carrot juice before it runs dry.

Nick tilts his head.

“Wait, call? They gave you their number?”

“Yeah, they left it on top of the pile of jerky they knew I liked to take from. Pretty sure they were watching me, but didn’t try chasing me down again. So maybe it’s real. I hope it is,” Duke answers solemnly.

The others look to Nick with anxious but curious expressions.

“So...what do you think?” Finnick asks after a brief period of silence.

Nick takes a deep breath and looks out the missing window.

“I don’t know, Finn. I really don’t know. I thought I knew what I wanted when I woke up, but...if there is a chance to bring life back to the world, then wouldn’t it be selfish of me to just let myself turn? I just…” Nick finished with a heavy sigh.

With his head turned to the outside world, Nick doesn’t notice the hopeful little twitch of Judy’s nose.

But Duke sure does.

And it confuses him even further.


	12. Mold Times

“Oh, I’m sorry! I forgot I never actually introduced myself to you! My name is Bianca and I’m this little monster’s current caretaker,” says Finnick’s mate from her spot alongside the couch. Her paws run up and down Finn’s tattered ears, making them shiver every so often.

Nick didn’t even know that his brother could purr.

Or kick his leg like that.

Nick smirks mischievously up at Finnick.

“So how did you two meet? Must have been quite the first date, huh? Hard to see how someone could be around this little guy for more than a few minutes without running scared!”

Finnick’s purring turns into a warning growl. Bianca’s face falls as she recalls the first night they had been together.

“Nick…” Finnick snarls.

“What did you guys have for dinner?”

Bianca hides her face entirely.

“NICK! I SWEAR ON OUR MOTHER, I’LL-!”

A wooden spoon flies from the kitchen and smacks Finnick directly between his ears. He flinches and grabs hold of the aching section of his skull.

“No swearing on me!” comes the scolding voice of his mother. “Nicky, stop teasing him! Ugh, it’s like stepping back in time with these two!” she whines down to Corduroy. The foxy head rolls his way around the counter, trying to help his mate with her cooking. Without her eyes, they have to rely on their communication to get the job done.

Nick smells something burning.

Oh, well, it’s the thought that counts.

Nick leans back with a surprisingly content look on his face. His mother isn’t wrong; with the present company, it is almost like he’s a kit again. It’s like an improved version of his younger days, without his father screaming at something. Corduroy is admittedly a much better companion for his mother, even without a body. He’s passionate about certain things and is willing to work together with her to achieve tasks that they used to be able to do alone. 

Finnick was always trying to bring vixens home to show off his lady skills. It backfired a lot on him when it turned out the vixens thought that they were returning a lost kit to his mother.

In a way, they weren’t really that far off.

Nick’s just happy that he finally found someone who takes him seriously and is also willing to keep his fiery temper in check.

But just looking at the two happy couples interacting, Nick can’t stop a twinge of jealousy from reaching him. Judy had to leave for work, so that leaves him and Duke as the only males without partners in the room.

Why did Judy have to turn? How much better would it be for them if they had both made it out of that stampede together? It could have been great. But as it is, those thoughts are just the newest fantasies in a long line of what if’s.

And now that just leaves him with the same burning question he’s had since the apocalypse began: what do I do?

If Duke’s right about the undead restoration program or whatever it’s called, then Nick could also do a great deal of good with his life. Granted, it would also probably mean he’d be kept in solitary for his own protection and be forced to reproduce with a lot of vixens. Is that how endangered species programs do it?

Nick doesn’t know if his budding relationship with Judy could survive something like that.

And it had already survived the end of the world, so that’s saying something.

Duke sits in the corner, looking at the card with the number for the mammals who had tried to get his attention. He has a look of serious contemplation on his face, which doesn’t fit him all that well. Nick was used to him giving shifty glances or furious glares, so something hinting at much deeper, darker thoughts is a bit jarring.

Bianca finally moves around to sit next to her mate, to which the eager fennec gladly accepts. Within seconds, the smaller fox has found a comfy spot on her lap and...woah, he’s asleep.

Bianca looks equally as baffled.

Duke’s eyes are wide and the card slips from his paws without him noticing.

“I thought…” the weasel starts.

“How did…” Bianca cuts him off.

“Since when…?” Nick interrupts.

“Who’s ready for some…?” Corduroy speaks over them as he rolls around the corner with a chef’s hat flopping wildly on top of his head. When he sees the sleeping fennec, he stops rolling and looks up in confusion.

“How did he pull that off?” Corduroy blurts out. The foxes gathered around him shrug, while Duke remains motionless.

“The undead can’t sleep though…right?” Nick mumbles up at the couch. Bianca doesn’t know what to do with her mate. Should she wake him up? Should he just watch him sleep? Truthfully, she had been wanting to see what he looked like in his sleep quite badly. And just like she thought, he resembles a scowling plushie, but one of those ones you would find at a Nocturnia’s.

She has to hold in her coos.

Finnick’s leg kicks a bit in his sleep.

She can’t hold in her coos.

He snores lightly.

She coos.

The others sit back and try to process what they’re watching. As far as any of them had known, sleeping was out of the question for husks. Something about the infection wired them so wide awake that even closing their eyelids was difficult. But maybe without the influence of it, some pieces of the lives they used to lie are slowly coming back.

“Aww yis, nap times are back!” Corduroy cheers as he does a little celebration roll.

Duke finally breaks his gaze away from the snoozing fennec and looks back down at the card. Somehow, Nick thinks that the weasel is a little closer to reaching his decision. Duke stuffs the card back into his shorts and stands up.

“Duke, honey, would you mind setting the table for me? My vision is busy acting like a bowling ball right now,” Marian calls with a pleasant chuckle. Corduroy bumps into the couch on accident, prompting an ‘Ow!’ that only proves the matron’s point. 

The weasel flinches at the sudden attention and gives Marian a suspicious glance. Was she teasing him for some reason? Why would she ask him that, when her two sons are right there?

“...Huh?” he blurts.

“The plates and silverware, you know. Could you put out five sets? Corduroy eats with me, if he eats at all. Can’t really be hungry if he doesn’t have a stomach, right?”

“She lies,” Corduroy whispers to the weasel as he rolls his way back to the kitchen. Duke offers him a shiver and a sidestep, not enjoying the glimpse he got of the inside of the fox’s severed neck.

“I...guess,” Duke shrugs. He walks calmly over to the kitchen, where Marian is holding a small stack of plates down for him. She can’t see exactly where he is, so he has to reach up and guide her reach a bit lower for him. The weasel accepts the plates and is quick to scurry up onto the larger kitchen table to arrange them. The silverware is spread out shortly after. Nick blinks as he watches the mustelid work, surprised at how fast and efficient he is.

Marian listens to the task getting done, a small smile gracing her features. But it drops suddenly and she flinches like she’s been struck. A surprised yelp escapes the mature fox and she bats at her own head for reasons unknown.

Nick rises to his paws and rushes over, unsure of happening.

“Mom! Mom, what’s wrong?!” he asks urgently. She doesn’t seem to hear him, instead choosing to shake her head from side to side. A few seconds later, Nick sees a fly escaping the confines of her eye socket.

She calms down immediately and lets out a massive, uncomfortable shiver.

“I hate it when that happens! Gross little bugs! Ugh!” she complains. Nick tries to imagine what having an insect flying around inside his head might feel like, and knows for sure that he would have reacted the same exact way.

Corduroy bumps against her leg, a worried look on his face.

Marian gives her head one more shake before crouching down to pick up her mate’s head. She gives him a hug that is probably more for her support than for his. He accepts his role as teddy bear for the time being and lets her calm herself down.

“I might be able to help, actually,” Duke’s voice chimes in. The occupants of the room, minus the sleeping fennec, turn to the weasel. He shrinks a bit from having so many undead eyes looking at him, but coughs and manages to work past the fear.

“I took care of my old lady for years, and she lost one of her eyes, too. I ended up making a glass one for her to fill the socket with. Had to clean it a lot, but it worked just fine. I could try making you one, if you want.”

Nick watches on in surprise.

“You? You can make fake eyes?” Nick inquires, not quite believing his own ears. Duke turns to the fox and gives him a quick huff of indignation.

“You know, Necktie, I might have been the King of Bootlegs, but I didn’t exactly have much in the way of suppliers. Most of that stuff I sold on the corner? Made it myself,” he says with a slightly bitter tone. Nick’s ears shoot behind his head.

“Wait, I thought...weren’t those stolen?”

“Movie might have been pirated, but pretty much everything else was made by these,” he grunts, holding up his paws to make his point. The russet tod sits down at the kitchen table, looking down at the expertly placed dinnerware.

“So...why did you always run when we came up to you?”

Duke sneers a bit.

“Please! With my track record? Plus that fact that I’m a weasel? If I stayed and tried to explain that my goods weren’t dirty, would you have believed me?” Duke asks with a narrowed glare.

“Maybe if you told us! We’re police, not th-”

“The police have done it before. Grabbed my stuff and my money and I never got them back. When I asked about my property on the way out of the station, they just told me that whatever they confiscate during a crime won’t be returned. A whole month’s worth of stuff, gone. Didn’t even have money for raw materials after that. I went hungry for weeks because I stayed and tried to explain myself. That’s why I was forced to start taking odd jobs. So yeah, I’ll run. And I keep running. Even now, all I do is run.” Duke’s voice turns from annoyance to despair the longer he talks. The mammals in the room around him listen to his experiences with sorrowful expressions.

The room is quiet as Weaselton takes his seat at the table, having to use a stack of books to boost himself up high enough to reach his plate.

“I think a set of eyes would be fantastic, Duke,” comes Marian’s warm voice, cutting through the tension in the room like a knife. The weasel flinches and looks up into her empty sockets. Nick would have thought the sight would spook him at least a little, but Duke doesn’t seem to care about how grisly an image it is. He did say his mother had one and that he had to clean the fake eye, so his stomach is probably well adjusted to it at this point.

The weight tugging on Duke’s shoulders dissipates and leaves him looking a lot more relaxed. He even offers a tiny smile to the motherly vixen.

“Okay...I can get some measurements later, once I get my-...OH SHOOT!” he exclaims, slinking back into his chair and slapping his face with his paw.

“What?” Nick asks.

“My bag! My bag of stuff, I left it...shoot, I left it back at the place I’ve been hiding! I didn’t expect to stay overnight here. This was just supposed to be a quick run in, ask question, duck back out before I get eaten kind of deal. And it’s broad daylight now! Ugh, we’ll have to wait until night time…” the weasel laments.

“Oh...well, that’s okay, I can wait,” Marian says gently.

A brief tingling of an idea stirs in Nick’s mind. In his mind, he pictures the scene from the window last night, before bed. That pack of mammals on the street...the ones surrounding the sheep. They got him to walk amongst the dead and kept him safe by forming a circle around him…

Could they do that?

Granted, they don’t have mammals as big or imposing as the sheep to help him, but…

They have Finnick. And his mother is terrifying in her own right. Plus Corduroy could act like a biting projectile if need be. Would Bianca be willing to come?

“Maybe...we could try getting it now,” Nick mutters. Duke’s eyes bug out of his skull and he looks like he’s about ready to chuck his fork directly into Nick’s face. The following silence says enough about his family’s opinion of that idea.

“Are you nuts?! I know you want to turn anyway, but leave me out of your suicide missions!” Duke rants loudly, causing a muffled groan to erupt from Finnick. Looks like the little guy is starting to wake up again.

“No, I’m serious. Last night, when I was looking out of the window with my mom, I saw a group of undead mammals escorting a living sheep down the road. They kept the other mammals at bay and nobody died!”

Duke replies with a chuckle of disbelief.

“Uh-huh, sure. And I’m guessing the sheep was covered in zombie guts, right? Was he carrying a barbed-wire covered bat with him? Was he missing an eye, too? Give me his number, I’ll see if I can’t make a quick sale,” Duke laughs sarcastically.

“This isn’t a joke! I know what I saw! And nobody charged him! Some got closer to investigate, but all it took to repel them were some harsh words.”

“Okay, then, tell us. What kind of mammals did he have guarding him, exactly?” Duke demands, his small arms folded loosely against his chest. Nick cringes and pulls back a bit from his mania.

“Mostly large canines...a few hyenas…” Nick admits.

“Ha! So basically brutes!”

“...And also a stoat.”

Duke stops his taunting and looks at the fox. He tries to find something, anything, that would hint at his leg being pulled. But Nick stares right back at him with no traces of his story being fabricated.

Duke rubs his face and groans.

“But...even if we could...why would we risk it? Why not just wait for dark?”

Nick chews his lip some more.

“I kinda wanna see if it works. If we ever need to leave this room in a hurry, I want to have some kind of plan. And it’s a bit more dangerous at night for me, since I wouldn’t be able to see a husk coming and my body isn’t small enough to evade like you can.”

Duke lifts a brow.

“That’s it?”

“Well...I really just need to get out of this room and stretch my legs. I’ve been sitting in here doing nothing for, like, two weeks now. I feel like I’m going crazy!” Nick replies with a small amount of heat in his cheeks.

“If you want to risk getting chomped on, you go right ahead. You let me know how that goes for you,” Duke grunts as he turns down to the steaming plate of slightly-burnt fish that Marian had just set down onto his plate. A hungry flame grows in his eyes at the sight of the prepared meal. He probably hadn’t had something hot to eat in quite a while now.

“Uh, bud? I don’t even know where your bag is. If you’re not with us, how can we get it?”

“I’ll draw you a dang map, Necktie. Now just let me eat!” Duke demands before stuffing his face with the delicious meat.

Nick’s eyes are drawn to Finnick pulling himself up into his own chair at the table. The smell of the home-cooked meal must have woken him up the rest of the way and drawn him to the impromptu meeting of the minds.

“What we talkin’ about?” Finnick asks as he yawns and rubs at his eyes. Nick notices that his brother’s messed up eye is slightly more centered than it was only days earlier. Another thing to keep in mind for later.

“Necktie here wants to walk around on the street!” Duke mumbles through a mouthful of fish. Finnick tilts his head to his brother. Before he can say anything, Bianca sits down next to him and politely accepts her own plate of food.

“Nick wants to go get Duke’s bag of supplies so that he can make your mother a set of glass eyes. To keep the bugs out,” the vixen explains into the humongous ear of her companion.

Whatever harsh taunting Finnick was preparing to bestow upon Nick dies in his throat upon hearing this. Instead, the fennec offers the two an approving nod.

“How does he plan to do that?” the smaller fox asks as he goes to take a bite.

“I’ll need a ring of muscle around to keep me safe, in case the dead aren’t as friendly as I’ve been led to believe lately,” Nick answers. The table is full of every member of the family now...except for Judy. Nick looks to the empty spot at the table where she would have sat if she didn’t have work. A small sigh escapes his nose.

“So I guess you’re going to be needing me, then,” Finn says with a mischievous grin on his face. Uh-oh, looks like someone’s getting excited at the opportunity to knock a few heads around.

“Uhh, yeah. I was hoping.”

“You got it, Nicky. It’s been a hot minute since I got to bite off some faces!”

Nick looks to his brother’s mate, who is daintily plucking away at her food.

“Would you mind coming along with us, too? I’m sure we could use your help,” he asks. Bianca looks up when she notices that she’s the one being addressed now.

“O-oh! I don’t know...there’s not much I could do…” she mutters faintly.

“Well, you could always just bite off some-”

“AWRIGHT! THAT’S IT!” Finnick belows and slams his paws down on the table.

Nick is sent sprawling back as a furious fennec flies directly into his chest.

Marian sighs and stands up, getting her claws ready to pinch some ears.

Just like old times.


	13. Zooicide Squad

The first few steps out into the daylight are the hardest for the shivering fox.

Exiting his apartment room was hard enough, even with the entourage of undead friends and family crowded around him. Nick thought that he wanted to do this, but actually going through with it is proving to be another matter entirely.

Finnick, Bianca and his mother are standing outside, waiting for him to work up the nerve to take those fateful few paces forward into the city. On the fox’s shoulder, Duke squirms nervously and holds on for dear life. Normally, Nick would hate having another mammal crawling on him like this, but he would rather have the added height in order to see any potential threats coming their way.

Behind the two breathing mammals, Mrs. Thistle guards the rear. She had been walking out of her room when the group made their way by, and gladly offered to join them. Seeing Nick again was quite a mood boost for the old cat. She had been feeling lonely for a while, since her family couldn’t come see her anymore.

Nick shuffles a paw.

Then the other.

Another step.

A deeper breath.

Duke sneezes in his ear and startles him into stumbling his way down the rest of the stairs leading down to the sidewalk. Luckily, he manages to keep himself upright on his way down, avoiding any collisions that might have had his brains spilling out onto the ground.

That would have been an embarrassing end to his story.

Once he catches himself on the railing and stands back up onto his shaking legs, Nick shoots the weasel an irritated glare. Duke returns the look with an apologetic head scratch. The fox gives a huff and turns his head from side to side, surveying the area around them. A few onlookers had stopped the watch the commotion but returned to their walking once they saw that nobody had been hurt.

Good, no one is caring that he’s alive...yet.

“C’mon, Nicholas! Let’s get this over with, this thing feels weird!” comes Corduroy’s voice from the frontside of Nick’s mother. Duke had fashioned a makeshift sling from a few bits of fabric so that Marian can carry around her mate while still maintaining use of both of her arms. The tod, while thankful for the efficiency, doesn’t seem to like the feel of being suspended from her chest. Maybe it’s a pride thing. Either way, at least he can guide her safely now and has a good view of what’s coming their way.

Nick nods hesitantly and proceeds forward to join his family. Behind him, he hears Mrs. Thistle closing the front door to the apartment. She catches back up to them in moments and takes her place in the back of the pack.

The circle, in its current formation, consists of Finnick leading the group, Bianca holding the left flank, Marian and Corduroy watching the right, Mrs. Thistle holding the backline and leaving Nick and Duke at the center.

It’s not exactly safe, but Nick can’t help feeling protected. Even if something does happen to him, he’ll die knowing that his loved ones tried their hardest to save him.

Does a bag really warrant this kind of risk?

In the short run, no.

But in the long run, it’s something they need to get good at, in case it becomes necessary.

So they march.

Nick takes a look around as he walks, feeling the familiar air flowing around him. It feels like it’s been years since the last time he’s been able to feel the city breeze in his fur. Only after a couple weeks, he hardly recognizes some of the same structures he used to pass by every single morning.

It doesn’t help that said structures are now littered with the corpses of the fallen.

Even if the corpses are acting just as bright and lively as they used to be.

The coffee shops he knows so well are still full of customers, though a lot of them are hobbling on missing limbs or crawling along the ground to get their precious caffeine. Nick’s favorite Burga location has a line leading out of the door and around the corner. He can even hear the tell-tale tunes of buskers crying out their favorite songs for extra bits of cash. After spending so many years as a street-dweller himself, it stings him inside to feel so alienated from the world he used to call home.

Finnick keeps the pace as he walks, which is more of a slow-walk for everyone else. He can’t help having little legs, after all.

Nick peers behind Bianca as the group passes a family of wolves he knows all too well. The unfortunate wolf pack walks past him with a bunch of the little ones hanging all over their wheelchair-bound mother. They still have their casts on, but seem to be able to move around more in them now.

The pups see Nick and wave enthusiastically. Their mother sees Finnick and growls at him.

Finnick hears this and lets out a few loud barks in her direction, scaring some of the pups pushing the wheelchair and making them launch their mother forward into the street, directly in front of an oncoming car.

Her and the little ones riding the chair with her let out horrified screams.

Nick flinches and closes his eyes, waiting for the crash. But it never comes. In a series of blindingly-fast movements, Bianca darts over and pulls the chair back out of the way just as the car would have demolished them.

The mother and her pups, unused to actual good fortune, take a few moments to process that they’re not actually in chunks. They rub themselves down to insure that they are indeed still in one piece, before looking up to the arctic vixen like she’s suddenly their angel.

“WOW!” Duke exclaims from his place on Nick’s shoulder. “I didn’t even see her move!”

Finnick grins proudly and folds his arms to his chest.

“How do you think she caught me?”

“...You had your pants around your-” Nick scoffs.

“YAYAYAYAKNOW WHAT?!”

“What?”

“...Shut your face...or I’ll eat it…” Finnick pouts as he spins back around. Marian blinks blindly between her two sons and tries to connect the dots. Of course Finnick wouldn’t tell her about his first interaction with Bianca. Some things are just not meant for a mother to hear.

Bianca finds herself covered in adoring wolf pups, though a few of them are too covered in casts to climb her. They seem content to just bump themselves into her legs repeatedly until she picks some of them up.

“Oh, aren’t you just the cutest little babies~!” the vixen sings as she embraces the young canines. Their mother wheels up to her and puts a grateful paw on her shoulder.

“I don’t know who you are, but thank you!” the mother says with relief still evident in her voice. “I can’t tell you how much we’ve gone through lately. It feels good to know that there are still some decent mammals in the world...ones who won’t throw boots at my pups,” she finishes that last little tidbit with some spite thrown in the direction of the oblivious fennec.

“Oh? Well...I’m glad that you are all safe now. Gosh, so many puppies! I wanted some of my own so badly before I turned. And now...well...just...be thankful that you have them!” Bianca says with a bit of a forlorn sniffle, despite the wide smile on her face. The mother adopts a knowing look and nods a few times as she watches her pups play with their new bestest friend.

Finnick manages to hear this part and his ears lower significantly. The others don’t catch on to his sudden drop in mood, but Nick sure does. He knows his brother like the back of his paw, and knows that he secretly wanted kits of his own one day.

Nick looks down in thought.

What if he wanted kits?

It’s not like he would be able to have them with Judy anyway. But maybe if they had worked out a plan with someone, they could have had kits that were at least related to one parent.

Well, actually, Nick probably still could, if the living mammal conservation group is to be trusted. Would he be able to raise the young ones he fathers? Would they even let Judy around his kits? Just another drop of sand among the piles on either side of his moral scale.

Whatever his decision will be, it won’t be easy.

Why can’t the world just let him rest? Why can’t he just have a simple choice for once?

Nick huffs and rubs at the collar of his normal button-down floral shirt. It might feel nice to be back in his street garb, but he had gone without a collar touching his neck for so long that he grew out of his taste for it. Maybe he would have to change his attire to match what he had been wearing for the last two weeks.

Once Bianca manages to pry the last wolf pup off of her leg, she rejoins the group and gives the wolf pack a friendly wave goodbye. They return the wave and set off again, hopefully not directly into the path of another disaster. They’re honestly like magnets for moving objects.

“So sweet! I can’t imagine someone trying to throw boots at such innocent little angels! How could someone stoop so low?” Bianca fumes. Finnick’s ears sink a bit lower and he refuses to answer her beyond a low grunt.

With the vixen back in her spot, the group moves forward once more.

Duke shuffles a bit on Nick’s shoulders, trying to find a comfortable spot that also allows him a clear enough view to spot trouble

And trouble starts to emerge.

Every block or so, a mammal or two will venture closer to sniff at the still-living fox. They are quickly scared off by the bouncers surrounding Nick, but the hungry looks they give are starting to get to him. If they were as driven as his own mother had been to sink their teeth into his skin, they might have tried harder to bust through the barrier.

“The sheep did it and was fine.”

“The sheep did it and was fine.”

“They’re not going to get me, the sheep did it and was fine.”

A tap as his shoulder stops his mantra. 

“Uhm...Nick…?” Duke’s trembling voice asks.

“What?”

Nick follows the direction of the weasel’s claw and feels his heart drop out of his chest.

“Is that the sheep you were talking about…?”

At first, Nick tries to convince himself otherwise. But there really aren’t many sheep that would dare live in such a high-predator area. That’s what made the original pack in the street stand out so much the night before.

Nick swallows dryly as he watches the same sheep from the previous evening walk by his own security detail. The young ram is walking hoof-in-paw with a female aardwolf around the same age. They stroll casually along and give each other nose-bumps every few steps, life they don’t have a care in the world.

The sheep is missing a chunk in his shoulder and has since turned.

So fast? It’s only been a day…

But...he looks so much happier now. An air of relief flows around him, made better by the aardwolf at his side. Just in the last day, something happened that both killed this sheep and made his life so much better.

They make a cute couple.

But that doesn’t help the painful pit of despair growing in Nick’s gut.

“Oh, crap…” Nick stutters. His response only makes the weasel on his shoulder freak out more.

“Well, GREAT. That’s just...PERFECT...great call, Necktie…” Duke groans in contempt. Nick shushes him before the others can catch on to what’s upsetting him. If they learned that they may be leading the two of them to their deaths, they may not be able to react in time to possibly stop an attack.

Thankfully, his circle of trust continues to do their jobs like they had agreed. Another few animals get closer to investigate the smell of living meat. They’re forced away by an especially pushy Marian, who uses Corduroy's head as a chest-mounted bear trap. The head snaps at anyone he deems a threat. The zombies might have tried to push the issue, but the sheer confusion of seeing a living meal being escorted by fellow undead mammals seems to jolt them back into reality.

Bianca is surprisingly capable when it comes to bouncing away unwanted visitors. For an arctic, she is unnaturally strong and fast.

Nick watches an undead badger soar over his head and lets out a whistle of admiration. Duke lets his defenses down enough to stand up on Nick’s shoulders to give her a small round of applause.

From behind him, he hears the sound of a massive body impacting the ground with force. He turns and sees a massive husk of a polar bear trying to sit up. He rubs his head with a massive paw, only to shrink back from the scowling face of Mrs. Thistle looking down at him. She slaps her paws together and returns to her post, leaving the bear to ponder what just happened.

After that show of force, the rest of the undead crowd gives Nick’s convoy a wider berth. Unfortunately, this makes it harder for Nick and Duke to hide behind the crowd. More eyes spot them and stare as they walk.

The feeling of being watched with hunger courses through Nick’s body. He can almost smell the undead drool leaking from their yellowed fangs.

A blur of yellow catches Nick’s eye and he jumps back, expecting a set of jaws to clamp into his flesh. Just as the undead cheetah gets close to the circle, however, a loud Crack! rings out and the blur is sent tumbling in the opposite direction. The other husks sidestep the downed cat and watch as he rolls by them. Just as the large feline collides with a pile of garbage on the sidewalk, Finnick lands back down on the ground with a large wooden bat held tightly in his grip. He prepares to swing it again if need be.

Where did he even get that thing?

Finnick takes a deep breath and lets it out in a way that utilizes his unnervingly deep voice.

“AWRIGHT! LISTEN UP! THESE ONES HERE ARE OURS! IF ANY OF YOU BODY BAGS FEEL BRAVE ENOUGH TO TRY GETTING AT THEM, YOU MIGHT WANT TO CALL UP YOUR TAILOR FIRST!”

A few unsure mumbles spread through the crowd of onlookers.

“Why?” someone calls over to him.

“Because when I’m done with you, they’ll need to stitch what’s left to you back together!” Finnick answers defiantly.

A few more whispers can be heard floating around, many of them fearful of the bat-wielding fennec. Some of them nod submissively and back up even farther from the entourage.

Finnick returns the nod approvingly and stores his bat...wait, where did it go?

It’s just...gone.

Is...Finnick a magician? Can Nick try pulling him out of a hat? He can come back to that later.

After that outburst, the mammals let them walk with little trouble. It seems the fear of the fennec has spread like wildfire and even mammals who weren’t around for the warning are apparently wary of him.

“Okay, where to next?” Nick asks up to his shoulder. Duke takes a look around at his surroundings and takes a few seconds to think. Maybe he wasn’t used to seeing the route back to his hiding spot during the day. The sunlight could be confusing his senses.

“Hmm...three more blocks and then take a left. Head into the market area. It’s in an alleyway, next to a gutter.”

“...Are you sure you don’t want us to just take you home? We’re out here anyway,” Nick offers, not expecting the scoffs that he receives for his efforts.

“Home? Necktie, I don’t have one. Why do you think I’m hiding in a gutter? I haven’t had an actual residence in years,” Duke spits darkly. Nick feels his ears sinking again and turns his nose to the ground.

“Some of those times you and Flopsy caught up to me? I let you. I needed a meal and a place to stay for the night so I would commit some petty crime and let you grab me,” the weasel admits to his usual captor.

“Wait...really? I thought I was just getting faster…” Nick whines. The weasel gives him a condescending smirk and rests his elbow on top of the fox’s head.

“You? Nah, you’d never be able to keep up with me. Flopsy can if she gets lucky. But if you ever got me, it’s because I wasn’t trying to get away!” he taunts. Nick grumbles and looks around for something else to focus on. Even at his best behavior, Duke is too much for Nick to deal with in more than short bursts.

Corduroy lets out a little cheer at something passing by them. Nick and the others look down at the sidewalk and see an entire group of heads, all rolling together and headed to the same location. Just having gotten the hang of rolling himself, Corduroy can’t help giving a proud little greeting to his fellow head mates.

Some of them call back up to him pleasantly. If they still had bodies, Nick can imagine that they would likely be body bumping each other in celebration. If they would have anything in common, that is.

Is Corduroy into sports?

He seems like he’s into sports.

Nick’s attention is so drawn to the rolling heads that he doesn’t notice that Finnick has stopped dead in his tracks. He almost steps on the fennec’s tail, but a nervous tap from Duke wakes him back up.

The rest of the group stops and stares straight ahead at the obstruction blocking them. Corduroy growls, leaving Marian having to guess what is going on.

Bianca shuffles nervously.

Mrs. Thistle cracks her neck and knuckles.

Nick takes a slight step back away from the pack of undead wolves staring right at him. Not one of them is moving in the slightest.

Finnick whips his bat out from...somewhere.

“OY! CASE YOU DIDN’T SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO LAST ONES WHO TRIED CAUSIN’ TROUBLE, I’LL GIVE YOU ONE CHANCE TO MOVE YOUR FLEA BITTEN ASSES TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET!” he bellows. The wolves don’t move an inch, though the red glow in their eyes increases in intensity.

“Oh, dang…” Duke whines, already resigning himself to an early fate as a mutt’s chew toy. He doesn’t want to squeak!

“Shh!” Nick urges. The weasel shuts up and looks down at the fox. “You know these roads. What’s the best way out of here?”

“Uh...take a left here, run down the alley and jump the fence. I think…” Duke whispers back, his voice and body trembling equally as bad.

The street is silent for the next few moments, either side unwilling to make the first move. Finally, the apparent alpha of the pack tilts its head in the slightest way. The wolves around it get the message and start to spread out, a few of them trying to flank Nick’s group by walking out into the road.

“They’re flanking! They’re FLANKING!” Finnick shouts back to his family. Corduroy tugs his head towards the advancing assailants, guiding his mate to them. Marian adopts her own fighting stance and lets out a snarl. Her frightening visage is actually enough to make one or two of the wolves slow down. Seeing two furious empty eye sockets glaring at them must be quite the sight.

“Back off, bitch!” Finn barks at the alpha. The wolf in question opens her muzzle and lets out a shockingly feminine giggle.

“What are you gunna do, squirt? Bonk me? Or are you saving the bonking for that vixen back there? Nah, I doubt it, you’re way too small for her!” the Alpha taunts. Finnick’s bat cracks audibly in his grip. Bianca lets out a snarl of her own, surprising Nick and Duke. So far, she had been nothing but shy and reserved unless she was throwing someone over her head.

“Aww, so I was right the first time! You know that your mate isn’t a kit, right? Does that upset you? Was that what you were hoping for?” she continues with her verbal assault.

Nick’s ears flick and he turns his head from side to side. Wolves surround them on both flanks now. She was just talking to keep their attention on her! It’s a distraction!

Nick tries to call out to his brother, but a much larger and faster sound catches his attention first. He thinks it might be a charging wolf.

The sight of a truck plowing through the wolves who had been standing in the road proves him so delightfully wrong.

Pieces of undead dogs are sent flying in all directions and the pack turns to watch their comrades fall. The Alpha lets out a scream of surprise and dodges an arm and a leg flying right at her.

Nick peers through the window of the truck as it passes and is amazed to see a sloth in mid-shock, his face still morphing into one of horror. His foot is probably still slowly reaching for the brake. Never before has Nick been so happy to see a sloth driving badly.

Duke tugs on his ear and screams into it.

“This is our chance! MOVE!”

Nick snaps himself out of his stupor and takes off running to the place Duke has instructed. The rest of his group notices his escape and takes off running after him.

By the time it has stopped raining pieces of wolf, Nick’s group is almost out of sight. The Alpha looks around, takes a deep sniff and barks loudly. Her remaining pack members gather around her. She takes off after her morsels, using her enhanced sense of smell as her guide.

Nick discovers just how out of shape he’s gotten since the world ended. While the others have no trouble running without getting winded, Nick finds his heart beating painfully in his chest after only a small distance. With every breath, his lungs burn a little more. Even his mother, having to use Corduroy to guide her, overtakes him before long.

By the time Nick ducks into the alley, he’s at the back of the group. His vision blurs a bit as his body struggles to fuel his rapid energy consumption.

The fox helps the rest of his family get his mother over the fence first. Without her sight, she has little hope of climbing up a chain link fence on her own. Corduroy dangles from her chest uselessly, having to just accept what’s happening around him. Mrs. Thistle is pushed over next, her older age making her a bit less athletic. She’s shockingly strong, but contorting is beyond her capability.

Finn and Bianca duck over quickly, expecting Nick to be right behind them. But when they look back, they see that Nick is struggling to summon enough strength to lift his own body weight off the ground.

Finnick’s eyes go wide, both of them focusing with equal intensity on his brother. Duke squirms nervously as his mount shows signs of shutting down.

“Nick! C’mon! You’ve scaled ice walls bigger than this! You can do it!” the fennec barks urgently. Nick tries again, but only gets a few chain links off of the ground before a growl catches his attention. The fox spins around and comes face to face with a smirking she-wolf.

Nick’s heart drops and he slides down off of the fence so that he can press his back into it. Anything to get a few more inches away from those gaping jaws.

He can already smell the rotting meat on her breath. Behind the Alpha, her pack mates converge on the poor tod.

“Oh...man...this is it, isn’t it…? We’re done…” Duke laments weakly.

“Nope…” Nick sighs before wrapping his paw around the weasel and launching him upwards. The wolves watch as the mustelid screams his way up and over the fence, directly into the arms of Bianca.

The wolfess turns her gaze back down to her remaining prey.

“That’s surprisingly noble. For a fox. If I wasn’t so pissed, I might have applauded you,” she snarls bitterly. Nick closes his eyes, trying to ignore the sounds of his family screaming behind him. He doesn’t want to hear or see what’s about to happen.

Maybe this will finally be it. He can finally turn. He just wishes it could have been Judy instead of these mutts. The way it is now, Judy will probably have to carry around pieces of him just like his mother has to do for Corduroy.

A stale breeze of horrid air washes over his face. Nick feels the teeth starting to wrap around his throat.

Sorry, Judy.

He should have just let her in the first night.

…

The screaming has stopped.

There are no teeth in his flesh.

…

Nick dares to open one of his eyes.

...The wolf is gone.

Where the hell did-?

“Hey! Let me go you overgrown pussycat!” a familiar voice demands from above him. Nick looks up and sees the Alpha dangling by the scruff of her neck. His eyes follow the appendage latched onto her all the way up until he sees just what stopped his imminent death.

It’s a massive tiger.

No, a few massive tigers.

The remaining wolves in the pack are all being lifted into the air, leaving their legs to dangle helplessly above the ground.

What is going on?

The wolves complain and try to swipe at the beasts lifting them, but the tigers simply smack them into the surrounding walls to knock the fight out of them.

Nick cringes with the crunching sound of every impact.

In the distance, he can hear approaching sirens.

When the wolves are appropriately subdued and loopy, the tigers step to the side and let a much smaller figure through.

A shadow falls over the fallen fox.

Nick hears some gasps ring out behind him. Bianca actually squeals, against her normal nature. Finnick lets out a whistle, to which he’s met with an irritated smack. Corduroy’s jaw falls open, leaving his mate effectively blind.

A strangely familiar figure walks up to Nick and leans down with a sense of urgency.

“Goodness! That was a close one, was it not? Are you unharmed, Officer Wilde?”

Nick blinks up at the undead but still gorgeous face of his guardian angel.

His guardian angel with horns.

“...Gazelle?”

“Sí?”

“No, I can’t! Can someone fill me in, please?” Marian's voice breaks through the shock. Gazelle looks up and locks eyes with Duke from his place in the arctic’s arms.

“Ah, it’s you! You got our card, yes?”


	14. The Taunting of Hill House

Nick can’t stop rubbing the spot on his neck where the undead wolf’s teeth had been only a few minutes earlier. The tiger’s grip has pulled her away from the fox at the very last moment. Another second gone by and Nick would be a corpse, or at least still bleeding out.

A shiver passes through him. Even with the much larger formation of guards around him and his family, his nerves are so shot that he can barely walk. Mrs. Thistle holds onto his left side and Gazelle supports his right. The two are much taller than the fox, but do their best to help him keep his pace.

Finnick seems out of sorts, too. The sight of his brother accepting a horrible death must have brought images of his own fate rushing back to the surface. As he is now, Bianca has to cradle him in her arms while they march forward to an unknown destination.

Nick regrets leaving the apartment.

Why was he so adamant about this?

Did he want to go on an adventure?

Was he bored from being shut in?

He doesn’t know. But what he does know is that his bunny is going to be furious when she finds out what almost happened to him. If she doesn’t leave him on the spot, he’ll be lucky.

Dumb fox.

Behind him, he can feel his mother’s grip on his tail, guiding her forward. He’s surrounded on all sides by mammals who care for him. So why is he still so terrified?

Gazelle has asked Duke if he wanted to ride on her shoulder instead, to which he immediately agreed. The weasel holds on tightly as they walk, but his face betrays just how dazed he is.

He had gone from thinking he was going to die to being thrown over a fence, then found out it was Gazelle herself who had been trying to get his attention the whole time.

He just looks frazzled now. The fact that he’s sitting on the shoulder of a pop idol barely even registers for him at this point.

Though he does look down every so often.

They walk for a good while, but can’t exactly see where they’re going. The group of tigers surrounding them are too tall and wide to see around. While this makes their current location a mystery, it also hides the two living mammals from the undead on the street.

The wolf pack is nowhere to be seen.

“Where are we going?” Marian asks after a long period of silence. Corduroy can’t even really help her now and he seems to know it. He has a forlorn expression on his face that hints at his feeling of uselessness.

“To my home!” Gazelle chirps pleasantly. Even after the apocalypse and even though only a few mammals can see her, she walks like she’s strutting across a stage. She has a sway to her hips that is certainly practiced. No normal mammal could bend themselves so consistently without breaking their back.

Duke looks down again.

Nick is starting to notice that the stench of dead animal is starting to fade. Not only that, but he can tell just by the sidewalk that they’re entering a much more upscale part of the city. The cracks in the cement disappear around them and the weeds all but vanish.

Nick takes a massive, shuddering breath when he sees the mansion looming in the distance. Is that where they’re going? He had never even been this deep in the Hills. Mammals of prestige are much less likely to give money to lowly foxes for sweet street treats, even if their wallets are filled to bursting.

Finnick is aware enough now to look around his new environment. After seeing the mansion, he groans a little and tucks himself back against Bianca’s chest to hide. She gives a shy smile to the mammals smirking at her from all sides, trying to hide the fact that she’s loving every second of it. His ear flaps up into her face so she latches onto it with her teeth. Finnick shivers but doesn’t try to remove his ear. As they continue on, Bianca chews lightly on the ear to pass the time.

It’s the cutest thing Nick has ever seen involving his brother.

He can’t stop the tiny smile that graces his muzzle.

The others notice but don’t say anything to him. The last thing they want to do right now is rob him of any positive emotions.

Mrs. Thistle and Gazelle note that the fox is still shivering, but not as badly. Slow progress is still progress.

The tigers suddenly come to a stop, making the crowd between them try to come to just as sudden of a halt. Luckily, they all manage to stop themselves before any collisions can occur.

Gazelle lets out a relieved sigh.

“Finally,” she mutters. Nick’s group looks up as the tigers stand out of the way of a massive gate swinging inwards. Gazelle motions for them to keep moving, so the herd follows her through the gate to her property. A long, winding trail covered with trees greets them. The way the trees are trimmed forms a tunnel that they walk under. Bianca lets out some awed exhales, waking Finnick back up in time for him to see them too. Even the usually grumpy fennec looks amazed.

Gazelle’s driveway is basically her own private nature trail. Flowers and other flora line the path ahead, creating an atmosphere of serenity that Nick thought only existed in desktop backgrounds. Such a pleasant scent surrounds them, making the fox realize just how sick of the smell of rotting meat he’d become.

He hadn’t actually remembered a time when he smelled something so nice. His entire life has been spent in the city, breathing in the same foul air as so many other creatures.

The only other smell that has ever provided him with such comfort is...Judy.

The fox feels his mood falling again. He misses his bunny. But at the same time, he’s terrified of what will happen the next time he sees her. If he doesn’t see her, she can’t leave him. As flawed as that logic is, Nick can’t help but feel persuaded. Anything to keep the thoughts of her possibly breaking up with him out of his head.

Mrs. Thistle gives the tod a concerned glance as she guides him further along the trail. Gazelle seems a bit distracted by the weasel on her shoulder, who she knows keeps looking down at her. But every time she glances up, he’s innocently staring out at the trees and bushes.

She’ll catch him yet!

The mansion they had seen earlier from a distance peeks out at them from the exit of the tree tunnel. What had already seemed like such an imposing structure is only more so up close.

It looks more like an art piece than a house. The whole front side is nothing but glass, which has since been reinforced with ugly metal plates. Fences form multiple walls surrounding the building on all sides. It might have been quite a pretty sight before everything went to hell.

But now, it just looks like a prison.

Nick almost stops walking when he sees where he’s headed. Something about being locked behind so many barriers with little hope of getting out in the event of a disaster triggers something in his head. The feeling of being backed into that chain link fence surges back into his head and without warning, he bolts.

The tigers aren’t even fast enough to stop him. Ignoring the surprised shouts of his family, Nick zooms around and places as many objects between himself and the undead as possible. His chest is already heaving from exertion, but he’s not in enough control to pace himself.

His body says run, so he runs.

Before long, he doesn’t know where he is. His fight or flight wears itself out, leaving him breathless and exhausted.

The weary tod finds a spot against a tall tree to sit against. The world around him starts to come back into focus, allowing him to see the gorgeous sight all around.

From up on this hill, he can see so much of the city around him. The midday sun gleams off the thousands of windows in every building in sight, nearly blinding him.

This is definitely the Zootopia he knows. But why does it seem so alien now? Even just the knowledge that the dead have inherited what used to belong to the living is enough to make everything seem foreign.

Nick curls his knees to his chest and looks down. This really is the reality now. Back in his room, he could at least pretend that maybe the rest of the world had fared a little better than the street outside his apartment.

But no. It’s just as dead.

And there’s nothing anyone can do to change it.

“Hi,” comes a voice from right next to him. Nick, just in the process of coming down from his adrenaline high, gets another shot of it and falls over onto his side. A loud yelp escapes his throat but he can’t think of anything else to respond with.

He peers over his shoulder and sees a small bunny girl looking at him like he’s crazy. She can’t be more than ten or so.

And she’s alive!

Her ears, fresh of any tears or bite marks, perk up in his direction. She’s wearing a clean set of clothes that look almost like they haven’t been anywhere near a zombie.

Nick stares up at her.

“You’re weird. Don’t fall over for no reason. You’ll crack your head open and your brains will spill aaaaall over the ground and the zombies will come running,” she says with no attempt to hide her snark. The fox lifts his brow at her, unsure of what to make of the strange first impression.

She looks young, but her expression shows a weariness far beyond her years. Nick can tell right away that she’s been through a lot. She’s seen things that no kit should ever have to see.

For all the time Nick has spent mourning his own losses, he almost forgot about all the other animals who have suffered through just as much and probably more.

“Why are you staring at me? Did you get bit? You’re not infected, are you?” the kit asks suspiciously as she takes a few steps back from the downed fox.

“No, no, I’m fine. Just low on energy right now,” Nick assures her. She squints at him but doesn’t respond right away.

The fox pulls himself back into a sitting position and leans back against the tree. Where did this bunny come from? Why is she out here alone?

“Sooo...what’s up, Q-tip?” Nick inquires, trying to settle back into his more charming persona. She gives him an irritated look in return.

“Did you just call me cute? You know how offensive that is, right? Can I call you Swiper then? And I’m here because this is my tree. You’re sitting against it and I want it back. Now go away!” she squeaks up at him.

Nick rolls his eyes.

“You can call me whatever you want, Cottonball. I’m not taking your tree, I’m just trying to calm down for a few minutes.”

“In front of my tree.”

“In front of A tree. I won’t be here long. My family will probably find me pretty soon.”

Her ears perk up even more.

“Your family? Your whole family made it?” she asks, all of her spunk draining from her voice. The fox looks over at her, trying to figure out what her problem is.

“Kinda? They arrived with me, if that’s what you mean.”

Her ears flop back down behind her head and she hides her face. A few shivers pass down her body and Nick realizes that he may be stumbling over some emotional tripwires.

“That’s not fair...why do you get to keep your whole family?” she sniffles. Nick tries to reach a paw up to comfort her, but she steps away from him.

“Not fair…” she mumbles again. Nick doesn’t think she’s talking to him anymore.

“Nothing really is, Missy,” Nick says softly to her. She refuses to look at him. “Hey, I never said my family was alive, did I?”

She spins her head and looks at him with wide eyes.

“W-what…? What do you mean?”

“My family that arrived with me? They’re all dead.”

“That...is a load of crap!” she screams at him, her shrill voice startling him a bit. What a set of lungs on this girl!

“It’s true, though,” he assures her.

“It can’t be! Otherwise you’d be dead too! It doesn’t matter if they’re your family! Biters will bite you no matter what!” There are tears of rage starting to leak down her cheeks now. Nick rubs the back of his head, not sure what to say to her. She’s obviously been through a way different experience than he has since the start of all of this.

“Look, I don’t know what you’ve seen. I don’t know what you’ve been through. But I can tell you for sure that it’s very much possible for the infected to work past the urge to kill other mammals. I’ve been staying with at least one other zombie in my apartment for the last week now! Yeah, some of them lost their minds at first, until we discovered the way to make them act like themselves again,” Nick explains to the pouting bunny. Gosh, she looks so much like what he imagines Judy must have looked like as a kit. He wants to protect her and make her feel safe forever. Seeing her so upset is hurting him in a spiritual way that he never knew he was capable of feeling.

“...How…?” she asks with a tired, painful voice.

“They have to realize that the infection isn’t good for them. They have to reject the high it gives them and they can’t see it as a good thing. Once they do that, then they start regaining control over themselves.”

She stares up at him.

“...You’re a terrible liar, especially for a fox.”

Nick’s heart skips a beat and a deep ache forms in his very core. Somehow this little bunny knew exactly what to say to hurt him the most.

But he doesn’t get mad at her or argue back.

The fox just slumps back against the tree and turns his head back to the sight of his city glistening around him. It might be a pretty sight, but it’s more like the kind of pretty you would call a corpse during an open casket funeral. It’s pretty and it looks so peaceful in death.

How funny is it that even the apocalypse can’t make others ignore what species he was born as? The same social stigmas still exist even in the absence of society.

Apparently foxes are still seen as lower class mammals. Maybe it’s better if his species goes extinct, just to stop the endless harassment.

Who would miss them? Who would miss him?

His question is answered promptly the second that he sees a group of familiar mammals heading straight for him. He hears a startled gasp and looks up to see the bunny taking off in the other direction. She doesn’t get far before she notices she’s alone and turns to him.

“Hurry up, stupid! Biters got in! They’re going to kill you!...What are you waiting for?!” she screeches like a banshee in her shrill voice.

Nick gives her an exasperated look and stands up like he’s going to actually follow her. But instead, he calmly walks towards the herd of husks hurtling towards him. The bunny girl sees this and screams something incomprehensible.

Nick lets out a grunt as something impacts him and starts tugging at his tail painfully. He turns casually and peers down at the kit.

Her eyes are wide and her pupils are barely pinpricks. She’s pulling on him with all her might, trying to get him to change his course. But being much bigger and stronger, the fox is able to stand the painful tail tugger and proceeds forward toward what she is sure is his doom.

“Stop! Stop, Mister Fox! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it! Please just run!” she yells with a tremor of emotion in her voice. Nick feels bad for making her cry, but he really wants her to watch this.

She keeps tugging for a few more seconds before she gets a look at Marian’s eyeless gaze. The severed head dangling at her chest doesn’t help the image any.

The bunny lets out a terrified shriek and finally lets go of Nick’s tail. She runs for her life, but doesn’t move out of sight. Instead, the small bun goes straight to her tree, which she hides behind and peeks at him from. Her ears are almost entirely covering her eyes, no doubt to shield her from the bloody scene that she’s sure is about to take place.

Marian leads the pack, purely through her sense of smell and knowledge of her son’s scent.

Nick opens his arms for her.

She leaps.

The bunny girl squeals and clamps her ears over her eyes.

Nick feels his mother’s arms circle around him. She pulls him into a tight embrace and takes in his scent again, just to make sure that he still smells alive. Once her feral mother mode is satisfied, she exhales and presses her face into her son’s chest.

The bunny is confused by the strange lack of tearing sounds and screams.

Finnick jumps onto his back, crawls up his shirt and starts punching the top of his brother’s head. Nick shakes his head quickly, sending the fennec flying back down onto the ground.

The bunny slides one of her ears to the side and peers out at the group.

Bianca, Mrs. Thistle and Gazelle’s entourage arrive shortly after. Gazelle sees that Nick is safe and lets out a massive sigh of relief.

The tigers look annoyed and winded, like they had all just ran around the property looking for him. Of course, he ended up being in the last place that any of them thought to look.

The bunny’s ears lift up together as she takes in the impossible sight of Nick embracing his undead family.

Behind them, she spots the horned host of the property.

Gazelle looks up to the tree and their eyes meet.

“EEP!” the kit chirps and takes off running over the hill on all fours. Gazelle’s brows narrow and she lets out a tired huff.

“Back in the house, little one! You KNOW you are not allowed outside alone!” the idol calls out to the fleeing bunny rabbit. This only makes the kit run faster towards wherever she had found a breach in the house’s defenses.

“Oi!” Gazelle groans and buries her face into her arm.

“Little stinker, isn’t she?” Nick chuckles from his place among his relieved family members. Finnick distracts him with a blunt object swung onto the tip of his tail. Nick yelps and scrambles around, expecting to see the mysterious bat out again. But when he sets his sights on his brother, the fennec has his paws in his pockets and isn’t even facing the russet tod’s direction. It might have been more convincing without the guilty whistling.

Gazelle turns her faze down to the fox.

“Selena? Oh, no, she’s...just...okay, yes. She is a bit of trouble. But she is a sweet girl. She has just been through too much,” Gazelle explains. The tigers leave the group to follow after the kit, curious as to where she found a hole to get through three different fences.

“Haven’t we all?” Nick replies. The gazelle takes a moment to think, but nods her head in agreement anyway.

“You are right. But I hope that with our program, we can start to mend some of the pain this awful infection had caused to this beloved world.”

“Spoken like an angel~” comes a familiar voice from atop her head.

Gazelle startles and turns her head from side to side, unable to locate the source of the voice. Nick peers up at the grinning weasel with an amused smirk.

Duke gives him the Shhh gesture.

From the irritated expressions coming from the rest of his family, Nick guesses that Weaselton has been messing with Gazelle since he ran off. Duke never really knew when to end a joke. When he got some positive attention to something he did, he ran with it until the welcome was more than worn out.

Duke turns his head and lifts his brow.

“Hey, Necktie. Isn’t that your buddy from the DMV?” he asks in confusion. Everyone turns to look where Duke is pointing, except for Gazelle. She just follows the direction the others are staring at.

Just like the weasel said, he can see his sloth friend Flash off in the distance, moving painfully slowly towards him. Nick smiles and waves at his friend, happy to see that he made it out okay, somehow.

“Hey Flash! Over here, buddy!”

Gazelle spots the gradually approaching form of the sloth and lets out the loudest groan so far.

“TONY!” she bellows.

The top of a tiger’s head peeks up from over the top of the hill.

“THE SLOTH GOT IN AGAIN!” she calls to him. The tiger slaps his face. Nick can hear his irritated grumbling from where he is.

“Huh?” Nick asks in confusion. He takes another look and sees that the friend he thought was still among the living is actually very, very dead. Flash’s mouth slowly opens as he gets closer, revealing a nasty set of blood-covered chompers.

...HOW?!

“This…”

Tony walks calmly up to the sloth and glares down at him. The sloth marches forward, not even looking at the tiger standing in front of him.

“Is…”

The large feline reaches down and latches onto the undead sloth, lifting him up like he weighs exactly nothing.

“For…”

Tony carries him back towards the fence surrounding the property. Nick blinks and watches.

“The…”

Flash is lifted like a basketball as Tony aims his shot.

“SPEEDING…”

Tony flicks his wrists and launches the sloth.

“TIIIIIICKEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!” Flash’s voice trails off as he is sent flying over the fence, impacting the ground with a sickening crunch and rolling the rest of the way down the hill. Nick watches this with a strange feeling of guilt and amazement.

Duke laughs once.

“Ugh... Don’t know HOW he keeps getting back in,” Gazelle complains to herself. She looks back to her guests and offers a more optimistic, welcoming smile. “Do not worry, it will take him at least a week to climb back up the hill.”

“Oooookay…” Nick responds, his eyes still following the rolling form of his ex-friend.

“Now then...how about we go inside and see everybody? Refreshments are free!”


	15. Remains of the Day

The inside of Gazelle’s home is nothing like Nick thought it would be, though he probably should have anticipated at least some aspects of it.

Instead of luxurious, open living space, the main interior has since been converted into a refuge hall. Beds and chairs line the walls and tables are shoved messily into the middle section. The part he absolutely wasn’t ready for is the vast amount of living animals relaxing inside.

Nick thought he was one of the last ones.

But apparently he was just one of the last ones to arrive. There has to be hundreds of mammals crammed in here! All around him, he can hear countless conversations going on as the survivors of the plague discuss their own experiences and problems. There are so many different species occupying the household, but Nick quickly notices that a lot of them are gathered into their usual cliques and types. Nothing changed much among the living, apparently.

But even more surprising is that a few undead mammals are also moving around, though they are covered entirely by hazard suits. The living animals look to be staying as far away from them as possible, but Nick does see a few younger kits waving to them. The undead helpers are always quick to return the waves.

What exactly is this place? Just a shelter?

“Well, here we are!” Gazelle beams as she gestures to the room around her. “As you can see, there are many living still with us. Until we can make sure of their safety, we stay here for now. Officer Wilde, you can look around if you want. We have to find you a suitable space for rest. Mr. Weaselton, Trevor will escort you to where you need to go and will bring you right back. The rest of you, come. You must be covered when around the living. Thank you!” she finishes and starts to walk away. She doesn’t notice that Duke is still riding her head.

“We’ll see you in a bit, Nicky,” his mother assures him with a quick hug, accidentally smushing Corduroy’s cheek against Nick’s chest. The head complains so his mother refrains.

Bianca looks around nervously, not liking the distrusting looks she’s receiving. All it takes to make her feel better is her mate climbing up onto her shoulders and slumping himself over the top of her head like a hat with giant ears. Whenever someone so much as grimaces at the arctic vixen, they are treated to the snarling visage of her shoulder-mounted hate cannon. It only takes a few frightened mammals to give the rest of them the hint not to bother her.

Mrs. Thistle breaks off from the group for a second to help a pair of undead deer move a heavy box spring. With her help, they have no trouble repositioning it. Before anyone can complain that she’s not in a hazard suit, she bids farewell to the bucks and catches up with Gazelle, who has a slight knowing smile on her face.

As his family is led away to get fitted for their suits, Nick decides to follow the singer’s advice and takes a gander through the residence.

It’s pretty much packed with mammals. He can’t take more than a few steps without having to sidestep someone or wait for someone else to squeeze by him first. It’s also quite warm from the bodies being so close together, even though Nick can hear the central air trying its hardest to keep up.

Too much body heat.

Crowds of husks probably don’t have this problem.

Though he disliked the segregated arrangements at first, Nick has to admit that it makes it easier to know what kind of animals to watch out for when walking. The rodents have their own blocked off area so that they aren’t stomped on and the larger mammals stick to their own wall. It might be disheartening to see everyone living this way, but given the situation, it’s pretty efficient.

The tables in the middle are packed with similarly separated groups eating away at whatever Gazelle has been able to provide for them. The predators actually seem to be much better off, since fish and other edible meats are still readily available at the stores in the area. Greens, however, are not. They spoil quickly and aren’t in high demand for the zombified majority, so finding food for the herbivores seems to be the most pressing issue right now. Nick sees a lot of them either holding their stomachs or resting their heads, the lack of energy rendering them all but useless.

Nick can feel their pain. Going hungry is not easy.

As he walks, he tries to take note of how many animals he sees of each species. It becomes apparent that the medium sized, quicker species have fared the best. There aren’t many big mammals in the room; their larger sizes and lower speeds probably made for a hellish time evading the undead. The small mammals probably had to hide until they were found by Gazelle’s team. There would be no way a group of mice could outrun an undead feline, especially one with unlimited stamina.

The most numerous survivors are the smaller canines, the medium felines and, shockingly, a lot of bunnies. The rabbits and hares make up a large portion of the smaller mammals. Nick can’t help the feeling of spite creeping up on him from the unfairness of it all.

Why didn’t his bunny make it out?

Out of all of these survivors, why couldn’t Judy have been one of them…?

He tries to shake the negative feelings away. He can’t go blaming them just for staying alive through so much. It’s not their fault the world ended. They’ve probably had just as hard of a time making it here as he had.

The lingering feeling of teeth tingles his neck again, reminding him just how close to death he had been only a couple hours earlier.

A grey object moves around the corner into his vision. Nick looks down just as the little bunny kit from earlier walks out of one of the many hallways, looking like she’s trying to be sneaky. She is so sneaky that she almost walks right into the russet fox.

She finally sees him and jumps back a few paces, a piercing shriek leaving her throat. Her eyes are wide, but quickly narrow again when she sees who snuck up on her.

“Ah! You! Get back! Don’t come near me! You're infected!” she screams. Nick looks around to see if she’s bothering anyone, but the survivors in the area are either too bored to care or they’re already used to it. She backs and holds her paws out in the cutest fighting stance Nick has ever seen.

“Not infected. Just fine. Like I told you,” Nick says smugly to the increasingly irate lagomorph. He holds his arms out and does a little spin, just to prove to her that he hasn’t been bitten.

“Liar! I saw them grabbing you!” she argues.

“You saw them hugging me, Fluff. That was my mom you saw there,” he explains further. She blinks her wide eyes, some of the hostility melting away.

“Your…mom? But...the other zombies!”

Nick holds his paw out and counts his group out on his digits for her to understand better.

“The small one was my brother, the taller white one is his mate, and the older cat is my neighbor. She helps me out a lot. She’s just like that I guess.”

“What about…” she takes a nervous swallow. “...The head…?”

“Oh, that’s just Corduroy. He’s my mother’s new mate.”

One blink.

Two blinks.

Her mouth opens but closes again in deep thought. Her eyes narrow and Nick can swear that he smells something burning.

“...Her mate.”

“Yep.”

“Like...relationship mate.”

“That’s what I said, yes.”

“Hooooooow does that even work?!” she finally manages to stutter. She tugs at both of her ears as if her head might float away if she doesn’t keep it held down.

“Surprisingly well, actually. She doesn’t have eyes, like I’m sure you noticed, so he does all the visual work for her. And in return, she gives him lots of love and takes him everywhere,” Nick says as he relaxes against the masterfully crafted metal wall.

“She just...has to carry him everywhere?” Selena mumbles curiously.

“Well, she does most of the time, but he can roll himself around if he needs to.”

She’s quiet for a few seconds.

“He rolls. He’s a rolling head. I...really want to see that…” she whispers to herself, not paying attention to Nick anymore.

Nick sees his chance to answer anyway when a newly suited up group of familiars approaches from behind the bunny.

“Looks like you got your chance, Sprout. Turn around!” he laughs. A shiver of fear passes through the kit.

She turns around slowly.

Just as she does, Corduroy accidentally bumps into her from inside his…

...Good grief, he’s inside some kind of rodent ball.

He doesn’t seem to have gotten the hang of it yet, as he struggles to turn away from the small bunny he just collided with.

“Sorry, excuse me! Coming through!” he calls out. Selena’s nose twitches and her body looks like it’s stuck between the urge to bolt and to laugh. Something about the head inside a large hamster ball seems to tickle her silly.

The others follow shortly after Corduroy, all dressed up in equally ugly white suits that cover pretty much every part of their bodies.

Marian has some sort of guiding prod now to help her see where she’s going. The problem is that she doesn’t know that she’s not supposed to swing it too hard, causing her to smack it into the shins of a few mammals walking by. They jump a few times to avoid any more ankle assaults and quickly distance themselves from the blind fox.

As soon as Nick sees Finnick, he bursts out into unintentional laughter. The poor fennec’s head must have been too big for any of the suits that would have fit his body, so he had to put on a suit that is much too big for him. The head fits fine but the material is bunched up and loose everywhere else.

To Nick, he looks like a kit trying to put on their father’s clothes for the first time. It’s a valiant effort but futile nonetheless.

Finnick’s ears perk up as the sound of laughing reaches him. The two giant flaps try to move around inside the material but are mostly restrained from doing so.

“HEY! SHUDDUP! JUST WAIT UNTIL I-!”

He tries to stomp towards his brother, but the loose sleeve of his suit gets snagged under his paw and sends him sprawling to the ground.

The bunny watches in cautious amusement.

Bianca walks up to her flailing mate, her own suit much more form-fitting. She picks him up and holds him tightly to her chest, which seems to be his off switch. It’s worked every time so far, and this time is no exception.

Nick never would have guessed that his brother was such a sucker for hugs. But he supposes that if he went a lifetime playing the tough guy, he probably would have been just as starved for physical affection.

Plus, the two foxes just seem to click. Nick has yet to see Finn throw so much as a sarcastic remark her way. It’s like Bianca is in this whole other world that no one else is ever allowed to visit.

She chews on her mate’s ear through the suit, forcing another soft chuckle from Nick.

What’s with the ear chewing thing?

It’s probably just something between them.

Selena turns her gaze to Mrs. Thistle, as if daring her to do something just as silly as the rest of them. But the elderly cat just stands by and watches the chaos unfold. A disappointed huff leaves the bunny’s twitching nose.

Thistle offers her the kind of pleasant smile that only a grandma can give.

Gazelle steps her way past the group, seeming to be in a hurry to get somewhere.

“Sorry! Sorry! I wanted to show you around and help you get settled some more, but your weasel friend has gone missing! We cannot find him anywhere! Trevor was supposed to take him to get his bag but he has disappeared!” the long-horned beauty frets. Every set of eyes in the area moves up to her head, where the weasel had fallen asleep some time ago and is now slouched over lazily.

Gazelle looks up and sees the mustelids perched between her horns.

“Ay! Up, up, up! Little troublemaker! My head is not for sleeping!” she scolds as she shakes herself from side to side. The weasel snaps awake finally and peers around sleepily at his surroundings.

“I beg to differ,” Duke yawns before trying to settle back down and resume his nap. His efforts are thwarted as Gazelle throws her head forward and sends him flying into Bianca’s arms.

Another great catch for Team Arctic.

He scrambles to right himself, the fear from being in free-fall still fresh in his mind.

“Woahwoahwoah!” he shouts. Bianca drops the weasel in favor of her mate. Not a hard decision, honestly.

“You! Weasel! Go with Trevor and get your bag! It will be getting dark soon and we will not be able to keep you as safe!” Gazelle orders.

A large male tiger appears out of nowhere and stares down at Duke. The weasel shuffles a few steps away before nodding and admitting defeat. He’ll have to finish his nap later. The thought of being able to resume his crafts does bring him a fair bit of excitement, though. He’s just not as willing to travel in the city anymore, regardless of bodyguards.

He almost ended up as dog food last time. Even if the Alpha was kind of pretty.

He would never admit that to Nick, though.

As the weasel fights his way onto Trevor’s shoulder despite the tiger’s insistence on removing him, the others turn to their frazzled-looking hostess.

She has her face in her arm again and is trying to take deep breaths.

“...Oy…” is all she can say.

Then she notices the bunny kit, whose eyes are still watching Nick’s group suspiciously. A warmer smile appears on her face and the tension in her shoulders fades a bit.

“Ah, good. You are back inside. Now then, have you met our newest friends yet?” Gazelle asks the bunny.

The young one doesn’t answer, instead keeping her focus on the head-in-the-ball. Corduroy bumps into a wall while this is happening, still struggling and cursing to himself over the sheer difficulty of movement.

“I think you have already met Officer Wilde. You left quite the first impression, little one! Officer Wilde, this is-!”

“Selena, I know,” Nick interrupts pleasantly. Gazelle blinks a few times, but the bunny in question does a few hops back away from the grinning tod.

“You know my name! Why do you keep calling me different things if you know my name?!” she demands with a tiny bunny claw pointing right at him.

“Cause it annoys you!” Nick answers with such an over the top innocent voice that Selena can feel herself starting to grow sick.

“Wait...HOW do you know my name?!”

“Well, I’m a fox, my floppy-earred friend,” he replies with a devious smirk.

“So? What does that have anything to do with knowing my name?!”

She’s starting to advance on him now, holding her claws out like she’s about to attack if he dares giving her the wrong answer.

He just gives her an evil smile.

“Foxes can read minds, of course. Especially the minds of twitchy-nosed little bunnies!”

Selena looks like she’s been punched.

It takes her a few moments to remember that she needs air to live. She takes such a massive first breath that he starts coughing.

But before Nick can let her in on the joke, she screeches right in his face and bolts in the other direction, her paws covering her head like that might somehow keep him from reading her thoughts.

Everyone turns to Nick with disapproving looks. The fox swallows as he sees how many undead eyes are suddenly on him.

His mother is glaring at a family of pigs to the side of Nick, who shrivel fearfully away from her eyeless stare.

Corduroy rolls over the tip of Nick’s tail a few times for good measure.

“Okay! Stop! I’ll apologize! Geez, I was just kidding. Thought she knew…” Nick grumbles irritably.

“She’s just a kit, Nick,” his mother reminds him with a firm voice. “When you were that age, would you have known when someone was joking about something like that?”

Nick ponders this and understands her point.

“Probably not. Yeah, I’ll go say sorry to her,” he says as he starts to jog off in the direction she had gone. He’s quickly stopped by Gazelle gripping his shoulder.

“No no no, no time right now! We must get you paired together and placed!” she urges him, to the confusion of both him and everyone around.

“What?” he asks, trying to pull himself away from her tightening grip. She gives him an impatient look and reluctantly lets go.

“Officer Wilde, this is not just a safe haven. We might still be working on getting living mammal rights legislated, but for now, our goal is to jumpstart the repopulation of the planet with new, thriving life,” she explains.

Nick feels the first tingles of dread starting to creep up his back.

“So...you want me to…”

“We will pair you up with a viable partner, if there are any present, and you will be expected to provide new life!”

With every cursed word flowing from her mouth, Nick cringes harder and harder.

His family speaks up before he has a chance to.

“Woah! Hold up! You never said anything about this!” Finnick is the first to burst out. Nick’s mother follows right after, though she is still shouting at the poor family of pigs.

“This is wrong! You can’t just tell my son who he gets to be with!”

Gazelle snaps out of her rushed mindset and takes a few steps back.

“Excuse my tone, I apologize...I am trying to do a million things at once. But I must insist that this program we have is only for the sake of life itself going forward! Do you think I want to make animals pair together who don’t know each other at all? Mrs. Wilde, this is much bigger than your son. This is bigger than any of us in the house right now! This is for the survival of all species! If we just let everyone die out, there will be nothing left of us when this is all over. The undead will rot away into nothing and no mammal will be there to pick up the pieces of our crumbling world,” Gazelle explains, trying to keep her composure. Around the group, most of the mammals have gone quiet in order to listen to the exchange of words. Many of them have most likely heard these same words before.

In the back of his mind, Nick knew what was going to be happening if he came here. He knew that the organization Duke had been talking about was focusing on repopulating the planet. It just never hit him once he saw Gazelle that she would be the one telling him what his role in the new world was going to be.

Mrs. Thistle watches Nick with a worried expression, unsure if the tod is taking the news well or not. To her, he doesn’t even look like he’s in the same room with them anymore. She knew the look on the fox’s face well; it’s the same look her own son had on his face when he saw her over MuzzleTime for the first time after the apocalypse.

Nick zones out.

Of course his life couldn’t just give him one hard decision to make.

No, it had to keep piling more and more on him.

Bianca has to hold her mate back from Gazelle, the fennec’s bat waving wildly and missing the idol’s body by a hair’s breadth each time. Gazelle doesn’t back down, though, and argues just as loudly with the combative fox.

“...and I know he is not mated yet! He said so when I visited the ZPD not three months ago!”

Nick tunes back into the argument at these words.

“I am now,” he says without any emotion in his voice. All heads turn to him, and his mother finally realizes that she’s facing the wrong way. The piglet she had been screaming at passes out and is dragged away by her trembling family.

“What?” Gazelle asks, her posture deflating somewhat.

“I’m with someone now,” he repeats. Gazelle blinks a few times, her expression turning into one of careful concern.

“And...are they...still alive?” she asks softly, moving a little closer to the fox and leaning to his level. Nick stares back up at her with half-lidded, empty eyes.

“No,” he answers simply.

“Oh...I’m sorry, Officer, I didn’t know…”

“But she’s still with me,” he continues, much to Gazelle’s confusion. The hostess looks around, her eyes first falling on the arctic fox. Finnick only narrowly misses Gazelle’s head with the most recent swing, prompting his mate to drag him a few steps further away.

“They’re...with...you’re...what?”

“I’m with Judy, she’s dead, and we’re together,” Nick confirms.

Gazelle’s jaw hangs open, allowing him to see that she’s missing some of her once-perfect teeth. Even as a husk, though, she’s undeniably still very appealing.

“Officer Wilde...that’s...very dangerous. I know Officer Hopps and you are close, but this...do you know what would happen if you even kissed…?”

Nick’s brow creases slightly.

“I’m aware.”

“If she accidentally bit you?”

“I know.”

“If she even accidentally gives you a tiny scratch…?”

“I’m up to date with the risks, thank you,” Nick says bitterly. Gazelle looks like she can’t believe what she’s hearing.

“You will die if you try to be with her!” she finally exclaims. Nick doesn’t back down, though, and meets her fiery expression with a hardened one of his own. When Gazelle realizes that her points mean nothing to him, she stands back up and takes a step back from him.

“Then that’s how it will be,” he confirms defiantly.

“You...would possibly forsake the future of your species to be with a dead rabbit…?” Gazelle mumbles spitefully. The logic running through the tod’s head just does not compute with the long-practiced activist. She spent her whole life working to help others, died for it, and now gets to spend her remaining time saving life as she knows it.

But another creature refusing to help, out of love for another, makes her feel so many conflicting emotions that she doesn’t know how to respond. She wants to hate him for his stubbornness, but every time she does, she remembers the two hanging off of each other and teasing each other back at Precinct 1, during her visit.

She remembers thinking how good a couple they would make, if they were ever to break through the social barriers that come with predator/prey relationships.

It took the end of the world, but it seems she was right after all.

“Hey, if it’s that important, I can just give you what you need and leave,” Nick offers, his tone lightening up somewhat.

“You...mean you would…” Gazelle asks, barely able to look at the fox.

“Sure. Just give me a cup or something,” Nick says, dipping his paws into his pockets. It takes the hostess a few seconds to understand his intention, but when she does, she can’t help but blush.

But in all honesty, she might actually take him up on the offer. It would take her medical team some time to set up the proper equipment, but if they could just go through the process artificially, it would save a lot of mammals a lot of heartache for the time being.

But before she can think more on Nick’s offer, a distant banging noise catches her attention. All eyes and ears focus on the door, where sounds of a struggle can be heard. The whole room goes quiet.

Shadows can be seen darting around from under the main door.

A loud THUD startles most of the animals listening. Some of the families are starting to get nervous, and gather their loved ones.

The sounds stop for a few seconds.

Before anyone can react, the body of an undead tiger bursts through the metal door, ripping it clean off of its hinges. The evening sun flows into the mansion and casts an eerie orange glow on everyone around.

A few mammals scream and take off with whoever they don’t want to lose.

Some of the undead mammals move closer to the door, protecting the living behind them.

Nick’s group moves in front of him in a protective stance.

Everyone waits.

Not a breath can be heard.

The only sound comes from the groaning tiger.

Nick gulps.

Finnick’s bat creaks in his tightening grip.

And then…

…

…

Judy.

The familiar sound of his bunny’s feet hitting the ground reaches Nick’s ears. She rockets into the room like a grey bullet, speeding around all of the undead helpers who try to stop her. The room erupts into chaos, with the living mammals trying to find anywhere to hide so that they won’t get bit by whatever zombified speed demon managed to break through the mansion’s defenses.

Gazelle looks around in a panic, trying to call out orders to those around her.

Nobody is listening.

They’re too busy screaming at the bunny darting through their legs.

At first, her path is random and unfocused. But then, she catches the scent of the one she’s looking for.

Her glowing red eyes land on Nick and his heart almost stops.

Unfortunately for Nick, it catches up after the skipped beat and continues to pump blood.

Is it illegal to wet yourself inside of a pop star’s mansion?

His family is too stunned by the sight of the usually-pleasant bunny to try to stop her.

The last thing Nick sees is the furious face of his undead love.

A furry body collides with his own and sends him soaring into the wall behind him.

As his head smacks painfully into the metal wall, his world flickers away from him with nothing but the sound of his bunny crying to keep him company.


	16. The Sins of Self

Nick’s eyes snap open.

He’s welcomed back to the world of the...almost living with both a throbbing headache and a soothing sensation running across his cheek.

He takes a quick look around to get a feel for his current surroundings. The first thing he notices is that it’s dark out now and there is no more light coming in through the few windows left uncovered. Then he sees that the room isn’t in shambles anymore. The beds and tables are mostly back in place and the majority of the surviving mammals inside are starting to settle down for the night.

Nick feels something stroke his cheek again.

He turns his head up, trying to ignore the bolt of pain that travels through it. It takes a few seconds, but he manages to look up at the bunny looming over him.

Memories of her rage creep back into his head and he flinches away from her slightly in anticipation of being hit.

But she just looks down at him with a tired but loving expression. She’s wearing one of the hazard suits now, so Nick figures he must have been out for at least an hour or so.

Judy doesn’t react as she stares down into the emerald eyes of her fox. All of the fury she had displayed earlier is shockingly absent.

Nick senses that something is wrong.

Even with time to calm down, she should still be at least a little peeved with him.

But she’s just staring down at him with the same thoughtful look.

“...Hey, Carrots…” Nick mutters weakly up to her. Her ears twitch a little bit at the sudden noise. She blinks a few times and seems to snap out of whatever trance she was in. She might have had her gaze on him that whole time, but she was a million miles away mentally.

Her eyes widen like she’s seeing him for the first time in a while.

“Oh! Hey...Nick…” she replies, though her voice is uncharacteristically lifeless. Something is definitely wrong and her current mood is scaring the poor tod resting on her lap.

“Are you okay? You don’t look so good,” Nick says. He tries to sit up, but Judy doesn’t seem to want to let him. Her arms grow heavy and she starts rubbing his cheek again. Looking around, Nick can’t see anyone else that he knows…

...Except for the frightened visage of Selena from her place around the corner.

She looks scared about something.

Nick figures it’s just from Judy being so close to him, since the kit has so far been unable to process how a living animal could be in contact with the undead in a friendly manner.

“...Me? I’m...good. I’m more worried about you, Slick!” she tries to chuckle, but the sound dies in her throat. “You got a pretty good bump on the head, there. I was scared I might have started seeing grey matter or something…”

Nick offers her a halfway-decent smirk.

“Please, if I had any brains to speak of, you would have finished them off by now!”

His bunny lets a tiny spark of her usual self glow in her eyes for a moment, but it’s quickly snuffed out by whatever is pulling her mood down so far. Nick swallows dryly and tries to clear his throat, only causing himself to cough a few times.

Judy just watches on with that same strange look on her face.

“Seriously, Judy, what’s wrong? You’re starting to scare me,” Nick asks, his tone dropping to an unusually seriousness that makes the rabbit cringe slightly.

“...I was scared…” she admits, turning her head to the side so she doesn’t have to look directly at him. She hides behind her ears somewhat, something he had only ever seen her do in very emotionally unsettling situations. “You...weren’t home when I came back. None of you were...I tried to call you, but...you didn’t answer your phone…”

Nick reaches down to his pants pocket, his paw patting down his thigh. Judy shakes her head and pulls his arm back up to her.

“It was dead, I already hooked it up. But...Nick, why didn’t you wait for me to help…? Why did you go out with everyone else? I mean...why did you even go out at all?” Judy’s voice sounds like she’s legitimately in pain when she’s asking this. Nick flinches, his ears folding behind his head as he tries to remember the exact thought process behind his earlier decision.

“I just...I know that I won’t be able to stay locked up in my room forever. And I know you won’t always be there to help me, especially in the case of a break-in or emergency…” he tries to reason. Judy looks deep into his eyes and can tell that even he’s not completely convinced by this logic.

“What was so important that you had to risk your life, anyway?” Judy asks. Just as she does, a frustrated tiger stomps by with a familiar looking weasel keeping pace behind him. Duke has his bag held firmly to his chest, but he looks absolutely petrified. Something must have happened when the two went out to fetch his bag.

Nick reaches up with a tired arm and points to the weasel.

“Duke wanted to grab his supplies so he could make my mom a set of glass eyes,” the fox explains to the rabbit just as she spots the mustelid climbing onto a perch for some relaxation and mental recovery.

Judy bites her lip for a few moments.

“...And why couldn’t he have just gotten it at night?”

“I...I really wanted to get out of the apartment for a bit...I feel like I’m starting to lose my mind in there. I’ve almost died a few times now and seeing the same walls surrounding me every morning is starting to get to me. I guess when I imagined the others forming a circle around me like I saw that sheep doing last night, I...I wanted it too hard to resist,” Nick sighs, his voice sounding more guilty and defeated by the second. Judy watches his face fall and feels herself fall even deeper into depression.

She doesn’t want to make him feel bad for something he knows he already did wrong.

But she just can’t wrap her head around his decision-making.

To her, his whole field trip could have just been some sort of thinly-veiled suicide that he dragged the others into because she refused to do the deed herself. The look on his face from that morning, when he asked her to turn him, had been flashing through her head for her entire shift. And when she came back to find an empty apartment, she could do nothing but fear the worst.

Had he gone out to find someone else to do it?

Had something gone wrong?

She didn’t know, and her fears only skyrocketed when she called him numerous times, with each call going straight to voicemail. Her messages weren’t even being read. In a world as dangerous for a living being as this one, Judy had to assume that something had happened to him. It would be irresponsible of her to think otherwise.

She had driven around everywhere she could think of to look, even venturing into the neighboring districts. But she knew she had found something when she came across a group of disassembled wolves trying to put themselves back together on the side of the road.

She followed the directions of the only wolf who could talk at the time, who guided the manic rabbit to where the fox had last been seen.

When Judy got to the alleyway, all she could find was the shredded remains of Nick’s tie snagged on a chain link fence.

She thought she had lost him.

Her fox was surely dead.

And not the kind of dead he had been hoping to become.

She just knew...he was gone forever.

Until she noticed a tiger walking by with a very much still-alive Weaselton riding on his head, much to the giant feline’s displeasure.

Getting information out of the mustelid was simply a matter of climbing the mountainous bodyguard, avoiding his attempts to remove her, giving him a massive wallop to the back of the head and screeching in Duke’s face until it turned paler than hers.

A shaky claw pointed in the direction of Gazelle’s mansion is all it took to send Judy flying away. She didn’t even pay attention to the gates and guards surrounding the building. In her state of infuriated panic, she became something much closer to feral than she had ever wanted to feel again.

Those poor tigers in front of the door had to be fixed up, and a few unfortunate helpers had to be sent down to each gate and fence to mend the comically bunny-shaped holes in each of them.

She hadn’t gotten control of herself until she looked down and noticed that the fox in her grip wasn’t conscious anymore. It was to her horror that she had realized that she had been the only one to physically hurt him since that morning.

The others had tried to calm her down, but they didn’t need to at that point.

Seeing Nick in his passed-out state hurt her so much because she knew that it was her fault.

Again, without meaning to, she had hurt her fox.

Or...was he her fox anymore? Had he ever been?

She doesn’t know anymore.

And she still doesn’t, even with him looking up at her with worry in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Judy.”

His words tear through her like a dull-edged knife, ripping instead of slicing and hurting instead of cleaning severing.

She can’t hold her emotions in anymore.

The undead bunny yanks her fox up and buries her face into his neck fluff, covering herself in his scent and trying to hide the ugly facial expressions she’s surely making.

In her head, she regrets not just turning him that morning. None of this would be happening. The two of them, even their whole family, could be wandering the streets right now, enjoying the nightlife and their newly gained freedom.

But at the same time, she can’t imagine killing Nick. Just the slight bump on the head she had given him hurt her more than words could describe. The looks the others gave her as they rushed over to see if he was still breathing only rubbed salt in the wound.

“Nonononono!” she wails into Nick’s neck, leaving him even more confused.

“...No?”

“No!” she shouts again.

“...Yes,” he offers. Judy pulls her face away from his scruff and gives him a piercing glare, threatening to smite him with just her eyes if he dares deny her.

“NO!” she repeats, louder than ever.

“Yes!”

“NOOO!”

“YES!”

“NO NO NO NO NO!” she demands over and over, starting to shake the fox up and down in her grip with every verbal bullet she launches at him.

“FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, WOULD YOU TWO JUST KISS AL-!” someone in the background starts to yell back, only to stop when they turn and see that one of the beings involved in the lover’s spat is among the undead. And she doesn’t look pleased.

“...Never mind!”

The bunny turns her furious gaze away from the offending survivor and lets it soften as she returns her attention to Nick. The fox is giving her his best sly smirk, which does nothing but make Judy’s chest thump a few more times in the strangest of ways.

“...Yes.”

“Nick, stop.”

He goes through the motions of zipping his muzzle shut and throwing away the key. Judy sighs and shakes her head, though a smile tugs shamefully at her lips as she does so.

Dumb fox.

Why can’t he see how serious this is?

Why isn’t he mad at her?

She hurt him!

Judy groans and tugs at her ears in a display of frustration. There’s no moral high ground to take anymore. He might have risked his life over nothing, but she could have ended it over just as much. How can she scold him after making him bleed?

She suddenly notices that they’re not completely alone anymore.

Just a few body-lengths away, a small rabbit kit is watching them from behind a suitcase belonging to a much larger mammal. She thinks she’s hidden, but Judy’s eyes are sharp enough to see the large eyes peeking at her every few seconds.

Judy’s nose twitches.

Who is this? Why is there a kit watching her? Where are her parents?

Nick peeks over to see what Judy is looking at. When he sees Selena staring back at him, he gives a soft smile and waves her over pleasantly. The kit doesn’t move at first, trying to maintain the illusion that she hasn’t been spotted.

“C’mon over here, Selena. I want you to meet someone!” Nick calls. The bunny’s ears jump to attention before slumping over in defeat. She moves out from behind the suitcase, grumbling all the way over to the fallen fox.

“What?” she demands bitterly as she arrives within a few paces of the couple.

“First of all, sorry about spooking you before. Didn’t mean to scare you. Foxes can’t really read minds,” he says honestly. Her nose twitches a few times before her eyes narrow at him.

“No, duh! If you could read my mind, you’d have melted by now!” she declares. Nick and Judy share a confused look, trying to see if the other had gotten that bit. Seeing that they’re both just as lost, they choose to ignore the oddness of that statement and move on.

“Okay. Anyway, this is Judy Hopps,” Nick tells her. At the mention of the name, Selena’s ears shoot back up and her eyes grow wide. Nick can even hear her little cotton ball tail twitching at the speed of light behind her.

“NO WAY! THE FIRST BUNNY COP?!” she asks in amazement. Judy feels another slight warmth growing in her chest. Instead of answering, Judy just reaches to her chest and tilts her badge, which she had pinned over the hazard suit. Selena squints and reads the golden plate before her excitement soars even higher than it already had been.

“THAT’S SO COOOOOOOL! You’re, like, the strongest bunny ever, right?! I heard you took down over a million rhinos! Oh, oh! Is it true that you stared down a crime boss until he gave up and turned himself in?! How many rams did you fight off when you took down Bellwether?! Oh, geez, you are-!...you…” She stops cheering when she finally takes in the sight of the bunny cop in front of her.

“...You’re...a zombie…” she mumbles, her ears sagging down and flopping onto the shoulders.

Judy looks back at her with a weary expression and offers a single nod.

“But...you’re Judy Hopps! You couldn’t have been taken down...you’re a hero!” Selena argues, the beginnings of some tears starting to form in her eyes. Nick cringes when he realizes that Selena might have just lost a beacon of hope in her life.

“I don’t know about that…” Judy says bashfully. “But yes, I was infected. And thanks to my partner here, I managed to work through the infection’s influence and got my sanity back. So now, I can help you all out just like I would have if I was still alive!”

“Partner? So wait...if you’re Judy Hopps, and that’s your partner, then...WAIT, YOU’RE THAT OFFICER WILDE?!” Selena demands, gaining her voice back again. Nick tilts his head a bit, not sure why his identity would cause any kind of new problem with the small bun.

“Yeah, I guess? Not sure I know of any other fox cops who work with cute bunny c-!”

Nick’s muzzle gets a stern bop, courtesy of Judy’s gloved fist.

“Watch it, Wilde,” Judy warns. Nick scrunches his nose, trying to make the stinging sensation go away. Dead or alive, Judy always knew just how to hit him to make him shut up. He usually deserved it though, and knew the risks.

“...You got her killed, didn’t you?” Selena finally manages to ask. A dark look spreads over her face and she shoots Nick a look of such contempt that he actually has to squirm to rid himself of the unpleasant sensation of being cursed.

“No, he didn’t!” Judy cuts Nick off before he can reply.

Selena jumps a bit at the sudden volume and tone of the bunny cop’s voice.

“What?”

“He didn’t cause my death! I did! He tried so hard to get to me, but I was stupid again and ran to stop an infected tiger from attacking more citizens, and...got bit,” Judy explains with a look of pain obvious on her face. The traumatic events play through her mind again and again, each time focusing in closer on Nick’s look of anguish.

Selena’s tense posture slumps and she deflates back down to her normal power level.

“So...he tried to help you?” the kit asks, her voice barely a whisper.

“Of course. He’s my partner! And...well...we’re…” Judy tries to finish, but she can’t bring herself to explain her love life to such a young bunny.

“We’re together,” Nick finishes, apparently not having any reservations. Selena’s eyes go wide and she actually almost stumbles back over a stuffed carrot toy that another bunny had left lying around during Judy’s original entrance.

Judy’s mood lifts a bit at how firm Nick had declared their status. To him, it’s the most obvious thing in the world and there’s no point in hiding it or stepping around it.

“That’s...no way, but...you’re still alive! How can you be together if she’s a zombie?!”

Nick shrugs lazily, squirming around to find a more comfortable spot on his bunny’s lap.

“We’ll find a way. I’ve been living in an apartment of zombies and the most danger I’ve been in lately was because I went outside,” Nick says to the trembling kit. Selena looks like she’s just been told that the planet is a helix and the color red doesn’t exist anymore.

The world is making less sense by the second.

“But...what about the vixen they’re assigning you?” Selena asks, looking between Judy and her fox. The bunny cop’s ears straighten up in a millisecond, ripping two clean holes in the top of the hazard suit’s headpiece. Nick, feeling the temperature in the room decrease by several degrees, sits himself up and tries to pull Judy onto his lap instead.

She doesn’t budge.

“...WHAT,” she demands, her voice rattled the ground around them. Selena hops back a few steps, fearing that a crack in the earth might open under her feet and send her plummeting to the planet’s core.

“Judy, listen. This place is only trying to bring life back to the world! Remember what Duke was talking about back at home? They are trying to save as many species as they can from extinction!” Nick tries to explain to her. Judy’s visibly shaking now and her face is puffing up like a balloon. Her foot starts tapping the floor so fast that the sound becomes nothing more than an ear-piercing ringing. The metal section under her foot is actually starting to glow molten red.

Judy’s trying so hard to hold everything in.

But she knows the truth.

She knew what this place was going to be. She knew exactly what her fox would probably have to do if he was going to remain among the living. Thinking she had more time to process things, she had simply pushed it out of her mind.

But coming home to an empty apartment, searching the entire city and then finding her fox in the exact place she had been fearing...left her with very little time to think things through.

Her nose is twitching painfully and her lower lip won’t stop trembling, even though her larger front teeth are clamped over it tightly.

She won’t cry.

She won’t cry.

Not in front of Nick. Not in front of everyone. She thought that she would have time to let her emotions out in private, maybe in the bathroom while Nick and his family were watching a loud movie. But everything is rushing up at her so fast, leaving her no time to breathe and cope.

They’re going to take Nick away from her.

He’s going to be paired with a pretty vixen, probably one closer to his age than she is.

Judy...will probably never get to see him again. They’ll probably just keep him and the rest of the living mammals separated so that there is no chance of another wave of the infection wiping out the rest of them.

But...she had just gotten him back!

Selena looks at Judy’s miserable expression and tries to understand the gravity of what is happening between the two heroes of Zootopia. She had always admired Judy, and to a much lesser extent, Nick. And seeing the way they react when told of circumstances that mean to drive them apart…

It hurts the kit. She can feel some of Judy’s pain.

She knows what it’s like to lose loved ones.

It sucks. It’s the worst feeling ever and nothing makes it feel better for a long time.

Nick picks the rabbit up and squeezes her to his chest, covering her in his scent. The bunny remains silent but her shaking only increases when she feels her fox’s embrace for what she thinks might be the last time.

It’s not fair!

Why does he have to go?

Isn’t he supposed to be her fox?

They’re just going to take him away from her, unless...unless she…

He did ask for it this morning, right…?

So he wouldn’t be mad if she simply…

They wouldn’t need him if he was…

In her delirious state of mind, her selfish logic starts to make more and more sense. Her body aches for what it knows she wants, and with such an obvious solution to her pain, she can’t help herself as she starts to open her mouth. Her jaw clicks a few times as it sets itself to snap shut like a trap. Nick squeezes her even closer to his neck fur, giving her such an easy shot that she knows it will be quick.

She loses herself to the selfish, feral side of the infection and gets ready to sink her teeth into Nick’s neck. His smell surrounds her, making her mouth water in such an unnatural way. She knows it’s wrong and she knows there will be consequences.

But if it means being able to keep her fox for good, she’s okay with that. Even if he hates her for a little while, he’ll eventually start to see how good the infection is. That pleasant tingle stirs inside her mind again, numbing her pain and cooling the heat that had been growing in her cheeks and in her chest.

Such a pleasant feeling. Why had she shunned it?

And why hadn’t she turned this delicious smelling fox yet? Just an easy bite.

Just one.

All it will take is just one bite.

A low growl starts to rumble in her throat. Her eyes roll up and stare at the fox hugging her so tightly. He’s so painfully familiar to her, but at the same time, he’s so obviously meat. She needs to finish the job so that he can bask in this amazing feeling with her. Forever.

Aaaand bite.

…

Aaaaaaaaaaand bite…

…

Why...why can’t she bite?

His neck is right between her teeth, all it would take is one clench of her jaws and he’ll be with her in paradise. But the more she listens to his heart beating, the harder it is for her to keep her mind set on turning him.

Doesn’t she want this?

Doesn’t he want this?

...No, she doesn’t think that he does. Not anymore.

Judy lets out an agonizing breath and closes her jaws, but not around her fox’s neck.

Her mouth shuts, disengaging the trap and saving his life.

She...she almost…

Without him even knowing, she almost...killed him.

Just because he is going to be with someone else.

Just because he is important for someone besides her.

Nick, her best friend, partner and favorite fox...almost died because Judy got jealous.

Simple selfishness almost killed the one she loves.

Judy’s eyes roll back into focus as the pleasurable tingling of the infection fades away from her mind and goes back to being a dormant temptation.

She can’t believe what she almost did.

To him.

To her Nick.

“Ah, I see you are awake, Officer Wilde! Good, I have the vial for you! My team took some time to get things ready, but you are free to do this and leave, if you must. And before you go off to...ehm, do the deed, I want to apologize for my earlier behavior. I am sorry I acted like you were just a cog in my machine. We are very thankful for what you are providing us with this evening! Our hope is to bring you up to speed at a later date. And, if you are still among the living, we might call you to see about another dose!” Gazelle explains after appearing out of nowhere and scaring Judy half to life. Nick exchanges a few pleasant words with the idol, but Judy can’t hear them over the ringing that has taken over her mind.

What did she say?

She said he would be allowed to...leave?

He’s...not being taken away from her…

Somehow, he had already managed to find a way to stay with her, while she had almost immediately gone feral as the thought of losing him. He used his mind to solve the hurdle in their relationship, and she...has almost forced him to die for her.

Judy sits up and ignores what Nick is saying to her.

In a trance, she stands up and walks away from the fox that she loves.

She can’t be around him anymore if it’s that easy to revert back into her savage self. For days, she had been so sure that she had complete control back from the infection. But all it took was a simple misunderstanding for it to take the reins right back from her.

Judy almost killed Nick. Over nothing. Because she was jealous. And selfish.

The infection persuaded her to follow through with her temptations, but she was a dumb bunny all on her own. And if her being around Nick is going to be that much of a danger to him…

She has to stay away from him.

For his own good.

Judy steps out through the still-missing door to the mansion, completely unaware that Nick, Gazelle and Selena are following her every move.

It’s a beautiful night out tonight.

She just wishes it was a month ago, when she could sit in the cruiser with her partner, cracking jokes over a pawpsicle and enjoying each other’s company.

Those were the days. They seem so long ago, but it really hadn’t been more than a few weeks since she sat back and looked at her partner, seemingly for the first time.

She realized that she loved him as she sat next to him in the cruiser, watching him admire the night sky and the countless stars watching over them.

And one month later, she ruined it by nearly giving into her cravings and ripping his throat out.

“Judy?”

The bunny keeps walking.


	17. The Hills Have Eyes

Selena watches Nick keep pace with the distraught rabbit all the way down the pathway leading from the mansion to the road. She continues staring in their direction, even after they are swallowed by the darkness and vanish from sight.

The small kit clings to the doorway, unsure of what to make of Judy’s behavior. She had been holding back her temper tantrum inside of the fox’s chest fluff when she suddenly shut down on him and walked away. No matter what Nick said to stop her, she just kept walking. It was the first time she’s seen a zombie walk like...a zombie. There was no emotion in her stride.

“Oh, dear…” a voice comes from above Selenda’s head. She jumps back a few steps and looks up at Gazelle. The hostess is still watching the dark as well, a concerned look decorating her features.

“What was that?” Selena asks the mammal standing next to her. Gazelle looks down with a gentle frown and sighs.

“That...was what I was worried would happen. They are great partners and I am sure they love each other very much, but...she is still infected and knows that she has the potential to hurt him a great deal,” Gazelle explains. Selena’s expression falls with her mood. Seeing her hero in her infected state was bad enough, but seeing her empty stare was so much worse.

The kit may only be ten, but she knows love when she sees it. And the partners are definitely in love.

She doesn’t want to be the reason for that love ending. Judy didn’t react the way she did until Selena mentioned Nick being assigned a vixen to mate with, whatever that means.

Selena looks down at her feet, working out a way to make things right between the hero cops. But maybe Nick could fix things…?

Just as she thinks this, the fox in question storms back in through the door, not paying attention to any of the questions being thrown his way. He has an irritated but tired look on his face, with a few angry tears already leaking down.

“What happened?” Gazelle asks as she follows Nick deeper into her house.

“She’s doing it again!” he spits back bitterly, taking a moment to wipe his face with his arm. Selena follows along, her heart dropping as she realizes that she might have accidentally broken up her favorite dream team.

“Doing...what?” Gazelle asks in confusion.

“The...the silent thing! She shuts me out and acts like she’s doing me a favor by staying away from me! Ugh, she always does this when she accidentally hurts me in training. I keep telling her that things don’t have to be so dramatic, but she treats her life like it’s one of her webcomics! She’s just…! UGH!” he says, pulling away from Gazelle and wandering somewhere aimlessly to let his emotions out.

The small kit tries to follow him, but is stopped by Gazelle gripping her again. She tries to pull away, but only receives a shaking head and a troubled sigh as compensation.

“Stay. It is not your fault. I will try to talk to him. In the meantime, it is almost time for bed. You should go back to your cot and get ready.”

Selena puffs her cheeks out and prepares to argue her point, but the sullen look on Gazelle’s face makes her rethink her strategy. She instead nods her head and stomps back to her familiar corner of the room, among the kits and cubs without parents.

Her cot is just as messy as she left it, and is the only one unoccupied. The numerous other orphaned kits are mostly all already tucked in. A few hang around, waiting until actual lights out time to go to sleep.

There is no order to the layout. The cots are claimed as the kits arrive, so predators and prey are mixed together without bias. This causes some small squabbles, but the adults tend to keep the peace.

Selena’s own cot is a tiny little thing right next to a much larger bed. Sitting off the edge of the larger cot is a familiar polar bear cub. Normally, before the end of the world, Selena would have had nothing to do with large predators like him.

But this cub is special to her.

He’s the one who saved her from her own undead mother and father, after all. He had been running for his own life when he heard her screams. He didn’t even hesitate. The orphaned cub charged in like a rabid mammal and shoved her parents away from her.

Even at his age, he was so much bigger and stronger than the feral rabbits. They went flying off of their daughter, creating a few seconds of leeway that allowed him to grab her and escape.

They’ve been besties ever since.

He looks up from his book just as she is pulling herself into her cot. The cub offers his kit friend a welcoming smile.

“Hey, Poof,” he teases kind-heartedly. She gives him an exhausted glare and huffs irritably. No offense is taken and the two settle it for another night in the house of nightmares.

It might be the safest place for them at the moment, but the groups of undead helpers moving around do nothing but make them nervous. For all they know, one of them could just be waiting for night to fall before they start taking their pick of the freshest meat.

“...Hey, Barry, can I borrow some of your paper?” Selena asks, forcing the cub to look up from his book once more. He tilts his head at her, but offers her a single sheet of paper anyway. She accepts it, along with a few crayons and markers from his art supplies, and gets to work.

She’s not the best artist, but Nick probably isn’t either.

The determined kit gets to work on her card, drawing her version of Nick and Judy holding paws together on the piece of paper that she folded. Barry leans over a bit from his book, trying to see what she’s up to. Her ear flicks in his direction and picks up the slight sounds of shuffling. Selena shoots the larger mammal a glare before switching sides on her cot so that he can’t see her paper.

He lets out a chuckle, shakes his head and returns to his book.

Her progress is slow thanks to the lack of a solid enough surface to draw on and her basic lack of experience. Once she stops to look at what she’s made, she notices that her drawings of Nick and Judy look more like a bear and a fish strangling a walnut together.

...At least it shows teamwork?

“You didn’t draw them with legs,” a voice says from above her. She squeaks and spins her head around, finding herself face to face with a critical polar bear cub. He’s surveying her artwork with a knowing glint in his eye. Her face heats up in an instant and she’s quick to cover her card with her body to keep him from seeing anything else.

“It’s not done! Stop looking!” she demands. The cub retreats for a few seconds, only to return with a card of his own. Selena gasps as she sees a simplistic but much more accurate drawing of Nick and Judy snuggling each other.

The kit looks between her own card and his card, her blush increasing.

“...Mine’s still better,” she pouts. Barry rolls his eyes and gives her a smirk.

“Sure, okay. What is it for, anyway? Someone having a birthday? A reunion? A wedding?” he asks in a single breath.

“No...I think I made Judy Hopps break up with her partner…” Selena admits. She gives up trying to hide her picture and lifts it to her face. Barry offers her his own version of the drawing, which she accepts without another word.

“Call it a feeling, Sal, but I don’t really think anything you did could have broken them up. I’m sure it was something else. And I doubt a card would fix a relationship like that, anyway. Cards are more for when you want to remind someone you know that you exist without actually having to go through the effort of visiting them,” Barry explains as he rolls onto his side on the cot and rests his head on his paw to look down at her.

“Nuh-uh! I’m certain this will work!”

“...Do you have the money to put into the card?” Barry asks, lifting a mischievous brow. The color in the kit’s face drains away as she looks back down at the folded piece of paper in her paws. In terms of money, she’s flat broke.

“...Shoot!” Selena shouts as she tosses the cards onto the floor and pulls her knees to her chests. The bun hides her face in her arms and curls into as tight of a ball as she can manage. Without money to put into the card, she’s out of ideas.

Judy’s breaking up with Nick and it’s her fault.

She should have just kept her mouth shut about the stupid vixen. It’s not like she actually knew anything about it anyway. All she knows is what she heard a few of the adults talking about when Nick first arrived. From the way Gazelle was talking, he hadn’t even been assigned a vixen yet! And he was probably just going to leave!

Stupid gabby gums.

“Hey...it’s going to be okay,” Barry says softly to her as he reaches a massive paw down and taps her lightly on the head. She sniffles and offers him a downtrodden look.

“How do you know? You’ve never been with anyone either! You’ve never even liked anyone!” Selena argues. Barry flinches like he’s been struck before his expression becomes neutral and he rolls himself back over to go to sleep.

“...Yeah. Night, Sal.”

Something about the tone of his voice makes a part of the middle of her chest hurt. Why does she feel even MORE guilty all of a sudden? She lets out a shaky huff and curls back into herself. Why does she always have to be mean to everyone?

Maybe she really is just a bad bunny, like her parents had told her.

All she ever seems to do is get others hurt.

Selena closes her eyes and lets the tears leak down until she falls away from the waking world and stumbles blindly into the darkness of her usual night terrors.

Being asleep, she doesn’t notice a large white paw slumping over the side of the larger cot and pressing against her body gently. Instinctively, she wraps herself around the limb and holds on for dear life, afraid that if she lets go, another one of her loved ones will vanish forever…

...Or try to hurt her.

*****

“Ohh, no! Brandon, do not tug on him! He is not a toy!” Bianca’s voice calls out to the rowdy pack of youngsters under her watch. The fox kit in question giggles like mad as his paws hold on tightly to the top of Finnick’s suit.

Finnick storms around the room, trying to shake off the kits who had decided he would be suitable for riding. Though his mouth lets out curses in his unusually deep voice, Bianca notices that he is restraining himself very well.

He doesn’t dare retaliate against the youngsters climbing on him.

A proud smile tugs at Bianca’s lips.

In her head, this is her paradise. It’s just her, her mate and an entire room full of screaming kits to manage. It might be a lot of work for only two undead mammals, but she’s been obsessed with having kits up until the day she turned.

That day...when she realized what she would never be able to do...was the worst day of her life.

How ironic is it that only a few days after joining the still newly-forming ranks of the undead, she finds a tod that she connects with enough to be able to call her mate. So many years of looking, and she had to lose her dream to realize her other one.

Her actions the first night were...regrettable, to say the least. The sound of his screams as she tried desperately to stop his bleeding will remain in her head until the day her brain rots away for good.

And when he came back to talk...after all that she had done to him...she knew he was the one.

It didn’t hurt either that he was a very handsome little fennec, even with his messed up eye. Speaking of which...she noticed earlier that his damaged eye no longer droops down or looks like it’s about to pop out.

It even focuses along with the other one! She doesn’t know how he did it, but somehow he must have gotten his vision back. Does he even know? He doesn’t act like anything has changed, but she hasn’t known him for long enough to know if he would hide such a development or not.

He doesn’t seem like he would lie to her, so he must have actually not noticed it himself.

She’ll have to say something to him about it later.

For now, she just enjoys the sight of her mate playing with all the young ones. So MANY young ones! It’s a wonder that they let two undead watch over all these tykes.

If only some of the kits were hers…

No, she can’t think that way. She has to keep looking at the bright side of things. And, despite her death and infection, she can’t think of any other situation she could be in that would bring her more happiness than she’s feeling now.

She even spies a tiny smile on Finnick’s face as he dumps one of the kits off of his head and playfully fights off the others. Eventually, he gives in and lets the group pile on top of him and pin him to the ground.

“OKAY! OKAY! I GIVE! GET OFF!” he barks happily.

*****

“Okay, that should just about do it!” Duke declares as he holds up his newest works in his aching paws. Two large, glass orbs rattle noisily in his grip. Carefully, as to not scratch his creations, he takes one in each paw and jumps down from the workbench he had been occupying for the last couple of hours. He throws his magnification glasses down, letting them clatter to the wooden surface of the table.

In front of him, Marian sits patiently with her paws folded calmly in her lap. The motherly vixen had been sitting there the whole time, letting Weaselton take his measurements and use her for references. Corduroy rolls in circles around the table, having long since gotten bored of waiting for the weasel to finish. His game started over an hour ago and if he rushes, he might be able to catch the tail end of it. He just hopes it didn’t devolve into a bunch of animal parts laying around the field again.

Duke jumps up onto Marian’s lap, startling her a bit. He manages to keep his balance, using the two glass balls as counterweights. He gives the eyes one more rub-down with his oiled work towel and starts to lift the first one into place.

“Now, I went with the heterochromia, like you told me to. Are you sure you’re okay with that?” the weasel asks for the final time. He couldn’t stop asking her, just to make sure she had her mind set. The last time he went ahead with a prosthetic without confirming, he’d been shot at by a furious group of illiterate hyenas.

“Oh, yes, I’m sure!” she beams pleasantly at him.

Duke looks down at the eyes in his paws.

“But...why green and amber? They’re not the most common of color combinations.”

“Green for Nicky and Amber for Corduroy!” she explains, the warmth in her voice actually heating Duke up a few degrees. It might just be his secret fixation with larger mammals though, especially canines.

With an expert paw, Duke slides the two orbs into her empty eye sockets. She shivers as each one pops into place, but the process doesn’t hurt her at all. A pink tongue sticks out from between Duke’s lips as he carefully moves the eyeballs so that they’re synced together nicely.

He moves away and takes a few more looks at his work. Feeling satisfied, he nods once and jumps down from her lap. Marian reaches up and touches the new eyes a few times, getting a feeling for how full they make her head feel. The annoying breeze is gone and the flies can no longer buzz in and drive her crazy.

Marian leans back in her chair and sighs in contentment.

The room is quiet except for the sound of Corduroy trying to roll himself in a place where he can see her new peepers. Duke jumps back up onto the table and quietly stores his tools away, thinking that their business together is over.

This is usually where he would just walk off and never talk to his customer again. That’s what they usually wanted, anyway.

“Thank you so much, Duke!” Marian cheers ecstatically. The weasel jumps in surprise and turns his head to the vixen. He had been used for only his skills for so long without any personal acknowledgment that the sound of being sincerely thanked is new to him.

“Uhhh...no...problem…” he mumbles in confusion. He doesn’t know how to feel about this. Yes, he made her something and didn’t charge her for it. But normally that would just make for a nice transaction of ‘his services for not being killed.’

He can’t remember a time he had ever done a kindness and gotten thanked in turn.

Not even his own mother thanked him when she had been alive.

As Duke picks up his back of supplies and walks out, he takes one more look back at the happy fox couple. Marian has Corduroy’s ball in her paws and is holding him up so that he can see the new orbs. From the tone of his voice alone, Duke can tell that he’s pleased with the outcome.

Huh...this feels good.

Duke rubs at his chest, trying to stop the pleasant ache that had started inside it.

Maybe...this could be his new life? Using his skills with crafts to help the ones around him? And being with the living mammal conservation group, he would no doubt be able to meet a few lady weasels in the process.

His dream of living among friends and having a family...could they still come true?

Duke mumbles something embarrassing under his breath before turning tail and leaving the foxy couple to their celebration. Marian turns her head at the sound of the door shutting, her brand new fake eyes focusing in Duke’s general direction.

The green and amber eyes flick around wildly, already starting to fall out of sync.

Corduroy notices but doesn’t care. His mate looks so happy!

And he has Duke Weaselton the craftsmammal to thank for it.

*****

Mrs. Thistle stands in the refreshing night air, letting the calming breeze roll its way through her stiffened fur. It’s quite a night in the hills of Zootopia. She hadn’t had a view of the city like this since her days as a black-and-white movie star.

But those days are so long ago with so little connections to the present.

She bets that nobody even remembers her now.

The Beautiful and Graceful Tabatha Thistle! See her fight for her life against the horrors of the living dead! Coming to theaters this summer!

The old cat chuckles and takes a look down at herself. For surviving so many horror movies, it’s ironic that she would end up this way. It turns out that all of the tactics she had acted out in her time in the movies did little to stop an actual zombie from sinking their teeth into her.

They had lost their head the moment she felt them, but it was too late for her.

The hardest part about dying was trying to call her family to tell them not to come to the city. She had been looking forward to their visit so much, and it killed her to turn them away.

But she knew she had to. If they were going to have a chance at surviving the apocalypse, they would need to stay as far away from any city as possible. So she called them, hiding her trembling voice and disturbing cough, just long enough to assure them that she would be okay in Zootopia without them.

She passed from blood loss shortly after ending the call.

When she had woken back up, the first thing she thought when she looked down at herself was something about how much time her makeup teams could have saved if she had come in looking like that.

But then she looked down at the badger bleeding to death under her, his blood pouring from a massive bite mark taken out of his neck. She tried to scream, but when she opened her mouth, the missing chunk fell from her teeth and landed with a splat on the ground next to his head.

She couldn’t believe it at the time, but she had killed the poor badger. In her feral state, she chased down one of her own neighbors as he tried to flee and tore his throat out in a single chomp. Tabatha has no memory of her time spent feral, except for the intense hunger than lingered after.

So she had locked herself in her room and hid from the rest of the world, terrified of what she had become. That is, of course, until she heard Nicholas and his partner yelling back and forth at each other. It was such a sweet exchange, and reminded her of the playful arguments she would have with her own husband before he passed.

She opened her door for the first time since turning.

Mrs. Thistle blinks awake as her eyes catch some movement down at the bottom of the hill. The tall cat stands upright and uses what’s left of her night vision to peer down at the defensive gates. The first thing she sees is the sloth making his way back up the hill, mouthing something offensive as he goes. She chuckles as he spots her and gradually raises his middle claw to the sky at her.

She returns the one-fingered salute and sets him off on another slow-motion rant.

But another bit of motion to the side draws her away from the slowly-approaching sloth. At first, she loses track of what had triggered her senses. But in her peripherals, she sees it again and focuses on the new source of rustling.

She spots the tail end of a wolf ducking into a bush, right along the pathway. Without meaning to, Thistle lets out a low growl and feels her claws flexing in her grip. Another closer look reveals the head of a very familiar Alpha peeking out from behind a tree.

She’s looking up at the mansion with a determined sneer.

Tabatha realizes that the lives of the animals inside are in danger, and she has precious little time to prepare them. The wolf pack hasn’t reached the fences yet, but she knows for a fact that it won’t take them long to find ways through or around their only remaining defense.

The door to the mansion is still missing!

Thistle groans and curses their bad luck and timing of the attack. The only saving grace is the fact that the wolves had decided to attack tonight, of all nights, where they’ll have to face off against more undead than they’re likely prepared for.

On silent paws, Thistle slips back through the front door and examines the insides. It’s to her dismay that she realizes how much of a slaughter it will be if the wolves manage to get inside. Most of the mammals are sleeping already, and there is nothing separating them from the horrors of the outside world anymore.

Tabatha remembers her days as a horror movie star and gathers as much charisma and bravado as she can muster.

She takes a deep breath.

“LISTEN UUUUUP!” she bellows, startling almost everyone awake. The crowds of living, many families amongst them, look up at her fearfully.

“WE GOT UNDEAD COMING THROUGH THE FENCES! GATHER YOUR FAMILIES AND FALL BACK TO THE LABS! ANY UNDEAD STRONG ENOUGH TO HELP FIGHT, STAY HERE! THE REST OF YOU, SHOW THE LIVING THE WAY TO SAFETY!” she shouts at the top of her lungs so that everyone can hear her. The wolves can no doubt hear her as well and must know that she saw them. The pack will be moving faster now, to try getting to their meat before it can escape.

To the credit of the living animals, they shut up and listen. There is no screaming. The only voices come from those trying to find their loved ones in the crowd. The sound of movement becomes quite loud, but it’s unavoidable.

Once the word spreads throughout the crowd, some more of the undead helpers start to show up. Thistle feels some tension drain from her when she sees that she has a good amount of muscle to back her up. A polar bear, a black bear, a warthog, three lions and an elephant make up the front lines.

“Okay, first thing is first! We need to get the doorway sealed off!” Tabatha commands. Her voice carries the air of wisdom with it, giving the other undead a fair amount of hope for the next few hours.

The group gets to work, stacking tables and chairs in the open space where a door once stood. It takes a fair bit of effort, but before long, it’s completely blocked off. Nothing will get in or out without a lot of time and a lot of muscle.

Just as Tabatha jams the last chair into the blockade, a loud Bang! sounds out into the empty room around them. A few of the helpers jump back in surprise and stare at the doorway. Another forceful shove hits the furniture but fails to budge it.

More and more bodies start slamming themselves into the tables, chairs and couches.

Thistle flexes her claws in anticipation as she listens to the sounds of the wolves trying to get in. But after a few minutes of trying and failing, the body slamming stops.

Instead, a loud scratching sound starts up, coming from the claws of no less than ten different wolves. The sound is ominous and frightening to some of the younger mammals in the room, but they tell themselves that they’re already dead.

That doesn’t make it less worrisome for the living mammals they wish to protect. If they’re going to fight tonight, they’re going to do so for their cause.

The world must live on.

And they’ll do whatever they can to protect what lives remain, even if they have to do so in pieces.

“SPACE OUT! WATCH THE WINDOWS! KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR ANY WAYS IN!” Tabatha tells her troops. They nod and follow her orders just as the scratching sound stops.

“...I thought that was you! How you been, pussycat?” comes the taunting voice of the Alpha from the previous day. Thistle suppresses the growl trapped in her throat.

“Better than your pups, bitch,” she answers coldly. “Hope your pack had auto insurance!”

The Alpha barks out a laugh.

“You think that was my whole pack? Pffft! That was just the scavenger team for the morning! You want to see my pack? You will. We’ll see you inside once we find our way in, Kitty! Hope you kept our meat fresh for us! Ta-ta!”

“I’ll. Be. Waiting!” Thistle finally lets her growl out as she speaks. Her stage voice, long since held dormant, rattles the ground and startles the wolves on the other side, a few of them scampering off to either side of the doorway.

The cat turns around and glares at the mansion around her, knowing that it’s very likely to become the scene of a bloody battle very, very soon.

And to make it worse, she knows that Nick is still in the building, somewhere.

If it comes down to it...she might not be able to save him.

She just hopes that Judy will understand.


	18. Signs of Life

Nick sits alone in some sort of guest bedroom, curled into himself and dead to the world. Gazelle had tried to talk some sense into him, but the weight of everything that had happened up to that point, mixed with Judy’s shutdown, dragged him so far down that he could barely move.

He shook the concerned idol off and kept walking until she gave up on him and left him alone. The first place he found unclaimed by refugees happened to be an actual bedroom. Why isn’t anyone using this? He had to pick the heavy door’s lock to get in. The lights were easy enough to find, though he ended up just keeping them turned off.

He didn’t feel like looking at himself right now.

The sight of his own russet fur would only serve to remind him who he is and all the bad things he’s done to his loved ones.

He didn’t save his mother.

He didn’t save his brother.

He didn’t save his bunny.

The only one he apparently cares about enough to protect is himself. And even after he fails to save them, he only gets himself into situations that hurt his family even more.

He hurt Judy again to the point of walking away from him. Nick told himself since her turning that if he had another chance to protect her, he would have. But how can he think that if he failed to protect her from himself?

He’s the worst thing to happen to that poor rabbit.

Nobody around him has benefited from his existence.

Nick lets out a shuddering breath and curls up even tighter against the wall of the bedroom. He didn’t even deserve to use the furniture. All he wants to do is sit in the dark and stare out of the massive window.

It’s barely a window at all, actually. It’s a glass plane that serves as the exterior wall to the room. During the day, the view from the room is probably gorgeous.

But in the dark, it…

Nick’s ears snap to attention as he hears sounds of movement coming from the other side of the glass.

He listens harder, holding his breath to ensure silence.

For a few seconds, everything is quiet.

But then his ear tingles again and he is able to make out the sound much more clearly. It’s a crunching noise that one would hear while moving through stiff bushes and other shrubbery. Nick stands to his full height and takes a step closer to the window.

As he steps closer, he is finally able to make out the dark shape of something standing right outside the window. It’s much taller than he is, its profile only defined by it being slightly darker than the night sky behind it.

Nick’s heart leaps into his throat.

It’s been watching him!

The fox stumbles back until his back slams against the door. As soon as his paw touches the doorknob, the shadowy figure outside his room finally makes its move.

Nick sees just enough movement to know that it’s throwing its head up to the sky.

A long, piercing howl rips through the air outside the room, the sheer volume making the furniture and glassware in the room rattle violently.

The howl is joined by another.

Then another.

Soon, he hears dozens of different howls coming from all around the mansion. Nick realizes that the howls are getting closer to him.

Nick yanks the door open and bolts from the room just as the window is impacted with something. A faint crack is heard.

Again and again, the shadow punches at the glass. The cracking is becoming a splintering sound now.

Nick slams the door and tries to relock it as quickly as he can. Luckily, the lock is the same on both sides, and can’t be easily opened from either end.

A loud shattering sound comes from the other side of the door.

He can hear multiple intruders stomping around inside the area he just was standing only moments ago.

He manages to relock the door just as something grabs the knob from the other side and tries to turn it. Nick jumps back, his heart racing so fast that he’s seeing some colors he doesn’t even know the name for.

The intruder slams against the metal door, but the metal-reinforced barrier holds strong.

The fox feels like he’s about to have a heart attack. His limbs are all trembling terribly and his vision is blurred.

Well, at least he knows why that room was sealed up. Giant window for a wall? Impossible to defend without wasting a ton of material. Better to just reinforce the door and lock it up tight.

Nick jumps as another loud bang erupts from the other side of the door. Some hushed whispers can be heard, but Nick can’t begin to make out what they’re saying.

A quickly approaching blur of color startles Nick again, this time sending him flailing to the side and landing painfully on his shoulder.

He looks up, expecting for there to be one of the undead attackers charging as him. Instead, he sees that it’s just a family of pigs in a hurry to get somewhere.

But they’re not the only ones.

It looks like the entire population of survivors are running to the same place, with some smaller undead mammals yelling out directions on how to get wherever they are going.

Nick sees that a section of the mammals running are all youngsters. Among them, he spots Selena being carried under the arm of a worried-looking polar bear cub. She screams to be put down the whole way through the hallway, but her friend isn’t listening. He sticks with the flow of the crowd.

Nick stands off to the side, trying to ignore the increased banging on the bedroom door. The intruders can probably hear how many living mammals are being kept from them.

It isn’t until Nick spots Duke trying to shove his way against the direction of the crowd that he tries to call out.

“Hey! What’s happening?!” Nick cries out for his weasel friend. Duke hears the familiar voice and tries to see who’s calling to him from through the retreating mammals. He sees Nick after a few moments and pushes his way over. The weasel is sporting an overstuffed bag of supplies. It looks way too heavy for him, but he seems to be managing it.

“Wolves!” Duke says to the fox over the sounds of the crowd. “The wolf pack from yesterday! They’re trying to get in!”

“I know!” Nick says, turning back to the door he just came out of.

“Oh, don’t go in there! It’s not secured!” Duke warns, far too late for it to matter.

“Yeah, no kidding! They’re inside already!” Just as Nick says this, a few more loud bangs ring out from the other side of the door. Duke jumps back, as do a few of the passing mammals.

Without another word, Duke sets his gear down, pulls out a power drill of some sort, along with a large screw.

He drives the screw into the ground right in front of the door and drills it in until it serves as an added lock, not letting the door swing out any further. The weasel does this two more times along the bottom of the door before packing the drill away.

By this time, most of the survivors have gone by and only a few stragglers remain. Among them in a rhinoceros who looks like he just woke up and barely knows where he is. He’s pretty much the last mammal to retreat, minus the fox and weasel duo.

“Where is everyone going?” Nick asks urgently, keeping an ear out for any possible sounds of wolves getting inside. He hears a few more bangs on the door, but it only sounds like it’s one wolf now. It’s not even trying to push the door open anymore.

It’s just making noise.

Why would it do that?

“They’re-!” Duke starts to say, but Nick slams a paw over his mouth to silence him. Duke shoots an irritated look up at the fox, but his anger falls away when he sees the scared expression on his friend’s face.

“Not here,” Nick whispers to him. “They’re listening to us. I think they’re trying to distract us.”

Duke returns the look of worry and swallows the lump in his throat.

“Just show me where to go, don’t say it out loud,” Nick instructs.

“I can’t right now! I have to go secure the skylight before they-!”

Duke’s voice is cut off by the sounds of shattering glass. The two of them look over to the main room, where bits of broken glass sprinkle over the middle of a bunch of beds.

Another howl sounds out, but this one isn’t being blocked by any barriers. The only thing separating the two living mammals from the undead wolves is a terrifying drop down from the ceiling.

The two stand there for a moment, as pale as ghosts. It becomes clear to both of them that the main room is a lost cause now.

They have to get going!

“Nevermind!” Duke chokes out as he turns tail and sprints in the direction that the rest of the survivors had been running.

Nick follows him without hesitation.

They run as fast as they can, Nick taking hold of the weasel’s bag so that he can run without burden. Together, they manage to catch up with the very last few survivors just as they enter the door to Gazelle’s basement. Once the door is closed behind them, Duke takes the drill from Nick’s shoulder and repeats the process for  
securing the door.

This time, they aren’t immediately followed by the sounds of intruders banging on the door.

They hear a loud roar coming from the area they had been, which then turns into a chorus of canine snarls and sounds of violence.

Before Nick follows Duke and the rest of the mammals down to the basement, he offers the door one last look.

Was that Mrs. Thistle just now?

*****

Selena didn’t know what was going on. She had been jolted from her semi-peaceful sleep by a loud voice filling the room. It carried such a commanding tone that the animals around her didn’t even ask questions or argue back.

It sounded like one of Nick’s crew.

Before she could fully wake up and process her surroundings, the thick arm of her best friend wrapped itself around her and lifted her easily from her cot.

She immediately began squealing her displeasure at him, throwing a few soft punches for good measure, but she was helpless against him. He just kept giving her terrified looks.

He held her close to his chest, like one would while protecting an infant. She felt her cheeks burning bright, but didn’t know if she wanted down any longer.

Barry pulls her along through the masses of mammals rushing to safety. From what she can tell from the hushed whispers around her, it sounds like some undead are trying to get in. Her tiny heart races as she’s carried, memories of her last experience with zombies still fresh in her mind.

She can already feel the tingle of dread coursing through her. She knows what it’s like to prepare for death.

It's too soon!

She’s not ready!

She gives up her attempts to separate herself from her much larger buddy, preferring to hide herself in his broad chest instead. At least he makes her feel somewhat safer. He’s already shown that he cares enough to protect her from harm.

Before long, they pass through a doorway and she is suddenly bounced up and down as he descends a long staircase. The sounds of so many paws moving at once fill her head like the beating of a war drum.

At the bottom of the stairs, the lights grow brighter and her ride becomes much smoother. A tiny headache has started to form from all the jerky motion, drawing a pained groan from her.

“Sorry…” Barry says down softly to her. She nods her head in acceptance but doesn’t say anything back to him. He looks down at the way she’s bundled against his chest and can’t help the tiny smile that tugs at his lips.

He wouldn’t ever say it out loud, but Selena is definitely a cutie. He doesn’t mind her snippy tone most of the time, seeing it as more playful than hostile.

Barry follows the crowd of kits around him. It seems an undead fennec fox and arctic fox have taken over watching the kits and are shuffling them into the farthest corner of what can only be described as a fitness center-turned-research facility. There are a lot of scientific tools and machines positioned around the room, but they don’t look like they’ve been here for long. The room is sterile-looking at least.

An entire section of the floor is cushioned!

A bunch of confused looking mammals, not all of them living, are dressed in lab coats. Whatever they’ve been doing, the tsunami of refugees storming into their work area seems to have taken them by surprise.

As the kits are lined up against the wall and counted by the concerned looking arctic vixen, Barry finally lets Selena slide from his grasp. She tightens her grip at first, tugging painfully at his chest fur, but lets go when she realizes that he’s not being taken away from her.

“What’s...going on up there?” one of the kits around them asks. The rest of them go silent so they can listen to the sounds of mayhem pounding away at the ceiling above them.

As the crowd of kits gets quiet, so too do the adults and families located in different sections of the gymnasium. The room becomes eerily silent, every set of ears trained upwards to take in the distressing noises happening in the section of the mansion they had been sleeping not ten minutes earlier.

If they hadn’t been awake, they’d all be caught up in a massacre.

The families huddle together, some of them chanting silent prayers together. The kits without families hug their friends tightly and try to ignore the violence happening upstairs.

Some of the larger living mammals stand and separate themselves from the smaller survivors, gathering themselves to fight if they need to.

The apocalypse might have already happened once, but for Selena, it feels like the world is ending all over again. Just like last time, she’s backed into a corner while the undead advance upon her.

A particularly loud bang echoes through the ceiling, startling some of the younger ones huddled in with the kits.

“...Ow! My butt!” Barry’s voice breaks through the silence and tension. Every pair of eyes in earshot, including Selena’s, turns to the bear cub in confusion.

He just grins back at them.

Another loud thump reaches their ears, and Barry continues with his performance.

“Owowowowow my other butt!” he mimics gleefully, drawing a few smiles from the crowd as the rest start to catch on to what he’s doing.

“Is that all you got? Well have a taste of my-!”

Thump

“YOWCH!” he sings, pretending that he just got his rear end kicked. He’s hamming it up to the max.

Selena smirks against her will. She knows that her friend can be really silly at the wrong times, but right now, the way he’s playing along to the ominous sounds above and making fun of them is easing the tension.

Some of the kits laugh, which draws a few irritated or confused looks from the other groups against the gymnasium walls.

They don’t know what could possibly be funny.

Oh well, their loss.

A loud, pained howl breaks through the room from above.

“But whhhhyyyyy?!” Barry cries out.

Selena laughs just as loud as the other kits.

Off to the side, Finnick and Bianca don’t know what to make of the polar bear cub, beyond calling him a bit of a goofball.

*****

Bianca watches the polar bear with a look of confusion written across her face. She goes to say something to her mate, but stops when she sees that he’s started laughing along with the rest of the kits.

“Oh no, not you! What is so funny? He’s just being silly!” Bianca whines with her paws holding her ears down. The sounds of conflict rage above for all to hear, and every shriek of pain only makes her worry more for the lives of the kits around her.

Finnick chuckles some sort before turning his head up to look at her.

“He’s a clown!” he exclaims pleasantly. Bianca tilts her head and flops her ears.

“I...see that?”

“No no, like...he’s an actual clown. He’s just trying to keep the spirits up around him. Look at his face whenever he hears a noise, babe. Watch,” Finnick tells her. She squints and concentrates really hard on the cub’s features.

Another crash fills the air, and just like Finn said, there’s a split second reaction where the cub flinches back.

He’s just as scared as the rest of them.

But he’s doing his best to take their minds off of their possible deaths.

Bianca sees his comedy routine in a brand new light and feels a strange sense of pride washing over her.

It saddens her when she realizes that he’s among the youngsters without families. Every kit, cub and pup in the group has been through more in the past two weeks than anyone should have to go through in a lifetime.

Bianca knows her death wasn’t so bad. It was over within a day and didn’t hurt all that bad. But the kits don’t have that luxury. They’re still alive, so every breath they take comes with the offset that it may be their last. Bianca can’t imagine how stressful that must be for ones so young.

Yet cubs like the polar bear putting on his little performance for the rest...they somehow find the strength to put others first and hide their own fears to ease the fears of their friends.

The cub stops his routine when he runs out of noises to make fun of. He looks up at the ceiling, trying to listen for any more signs of struggling.

Everyone else in the room follows suit.

Strangely, they can’t hear anything moving around upstairs anymore. This means either the wolves were defeated or driven back...or...the house’s defenders had fallen.

The ache of unknowing fills the room, reversing any good that Barry’s comedy show might have done for his fellow kits.

It’s far too quiet in the house.

A sudden smell fills Bianca’s nose and sends her into high alert. Finnick smells it too and his bat is suddenly in his paws again. She had long since given up on solving that mystery.

Something smells like death. It’s much stronger than the faint odor that the reformed zombies put out; this is the stench of a raw, feral undead.

It smells like dead dog.

Bianca and her companion act immediately, using their noses to track the source of the smell. None of the other groups have noticed anything yet, so it has to be coming from their area. Bianca finds a trail and follows it, the aroma leading her through the crowd of kits and towards the back wall.

Finnick follows his own nose, leading him around the opposite way but guiding him towards the same spot.

The two start to move towards each other along the wall, the smell growing stronger the closer they get. As they move, the kits are quick to let them pass.

“It’s getting strong!” Bianca calls to her mate.

“I think we’re getting close!” Finnick calls back.

They finally meet at one point on the wall, their eyes passing over a small rabbit kit standing in front of an air vent.

They watch her, both of their eyes widening as they notice that the grates covering the vent are bent wide open.

Something moves inside.

****

Selena looks up at the two undead caretakers, not liking the look of horror that they’re giving her.

“What?!” she demands, right before she hears something sliding around behind her. A long black arm with deadly claws swipes at her with murderous intent.

She lets out a shriek unlike any other.

Her vision is overtaken by white as a familiar arm shoots around her and fastens itself. She feels a violent shudder pass through the white-furred limb, and she is thrown away from the wall.

Selena squeaks as she lands painfully on her side, but she ignores the pain and turns back to her friend as quickly as she can.

Her vision grows bright as she takes in the sight of her best friend in the whole world crying out and struggling to detach the undead wolf’s head from his arm.

Her heart stops.

She doesn’t breathe.

The only thing she can do is watch as blood trickles down from where the wolf’s jaws are clamped into Barry’s flesh, staining his beautiful white fur with dark crimson.

He’s screaming in pain, but his voice is drowned out by the wail of absolute anguish pouring from Selena’s mouth.

The bunny finds her legs and manages to wobble towards her friend. Before she can arrive, however, she is cut off by a tall white blur streaking in front of her.

Selena falls back onto her tail just in time to witness the wolf’s head being pulled clean off of its shoulders. The undead arctic fox that had been watching over the kits turns her head back to the crowd, displaying two brightly glowing red eyes and a snarling mouth full of black-covered teeth.

This causes the kits around to start screaming. The many different screams echoing out into the gymnasium over the last few seconds draw a number of living mammals over to help.

Selena doesn’t pay any mind to the world around her. Her vision focuses on the stricken bear cub currently writhing on the ground with the wolf’s head still latched onto him.

The undead fennec whips a bat expertly against the top of the wolf’s head, cracking it open and sending rotted grey matter flying into the wall. The jaws slacken after that, allowing the cub to pull the head away from his arm.

It falls away and crackles a bit upon impact with the gymnasium floor.

Barry takes a deep, trembling breath as he processes the grisly teeth marks covering his left arm.

Selena bolts in the direction of her friend just as the arctic fox slides next to him and takes him into her arms.

“Shh! Shh! Let me see, let me see...ohh...oh no...FINNICK!” she cries out, tears already flowing from her eyes.

“HE’S BEEN INFECTED!”

Finnick lets out a scream of fury as he takes his aggression out on the chunky puddle that used to be a wolf’s head.

His eyes glow just as red as the vixen’s had as he hears more movement coming from the vent. With no hesitation, the fennec launches himself into the duct and disappears, leaving nothing but a few bloody paw prints.

He bellows a terrifying war cry from inside the vents and the sounds of violence begin again.

More undead rush over to secure the vent, while a few of the larger adults rush over to see the cub.

Gasps fill the air every time another stranger sees the polar bear’s mangled arm.

Selena doesn’t care.

She just wants Barry to be okay.

He looks over at her with wide, terrified eyes. They’re already bloodshot.

He tries his hardest to give her a reassuring smile, but the sheer gravity of the situation washes over him and forces a choked sob to escape him.

Selena’s world goes blurry as her eyes water over. She wraps her small arms around her friend and squeezes with all of her might. If she holds on tight enough, he won’t be able to leave her.

He won’t leave.

He can’t leave.

Not him.


	19. Aftershock

From his place against the wall, Nick hears a scream.

This isn’t the strangest thing for him to hear, given that he’s part of a group trying to survive a zombie attack.

But it is strange because he knows the voice doing the screaming. That loud, high pitched wail that leaves his ears ringing for a few seconds after.

Selena.

While Duke continues to watch the door with his drill at the ready, Nick takes off in the direction of the scream.

She hasn’t stopped yet.

Through the crowds of other survivors in his way, he starts to see a commotion arising from the far corner of the room. A feeling of horror hits him as he sees a stampede of kits running away from where he can hear Selena screaming.

She’s crying now.

And this isn’t a scared or hurt cry; she sounds like she’s just been told the worst news someone can receive. It sounds like pure anguish.

Nick’s heart pumps blood faster and faster as his legs scramble to get him to his destination as quickly as possible.

He doesn’t even know why he’s reacting this way about her. He doesn’t even really know her, and the few interactions they’ve had have ended up with someone getting their feelings hurt.

But something inside him is taking over and commanding him to find her and protect her. 

It’s a new feeling for him, but a welcome one.

Nick finally manages to push his way through the herd of fleeing mammals and arrives where the screaming was coming from.

His heart sinks.

He found the small kit, and she’s unharmed, but…

Nick slowly shuffles closer to Bianca, where a polar bear cub half the size of her is cradled in her arms. Selena is wrapped around him and refuses to let go, despite the insistence of the mammals in lab coats gathered around them.

It doesn’t take him long to figure out what happened. A sideways glance at a bent-up air vent only confirms his theory.

Another vicious snarl from Finnick, still waging his war inside the ductwork, startles Nick slightly. He looks closer at the entrance to the duct and sees a thick black sludge beginning to leak out.

Whoever is trapped in there with his brother, they’re not having a good day.

A team of mammals, both living and dead, stand outside the vent at the ready, in case anything manages to slip by the raging fennec. They hold what weapons they can find, ranging from weight bars to medicine balls.

“NO!” Selena shrieks as one of the coated mammals tries to remove her from her friend. The polar bear cub is already starting to look flushed. Does the infection kill hosts faster if they’re young?

The cub reluctantly lets the kit go, allowing one of the scientist-looking mammals to pick Selena up and carry her away. He doesn’t get very far, though.

“Ouch!”

The scientist drops Selena and rubs at his aching arm, where the indent from two little rabbit teeth can be seen.

“She bit me!” he whines. The kit is just lucky that she decided to bite one of the living ones. If the one carrying her had been undead, she would be in the same boat as the cub. 

Selena bolts right back to her friend and reattaches herself to his side. He looks down at her, unsure of how to react. Through his trembling and sniffling, Nick can see that the ghost of a smile is showing through as he looks down at her.

Bianca looks up at Nick with a tear-stained face and an expression of guilt and misery. She can’t even speak right, her words flowing out as babbling nonsense.

He gets the idea, though.

Wolves got in.

Cub got bit.

She blames herself.

And if the sounds coming from the vent are anything to go by, then Finnick is shouldering as much guilt as her. He’s just responding in the only way he knows how.

Nick slowly lowers himself to the trio and places a paw on Selena’s back. She doesn’t notice. It’s like nothing around her exists except for the cub. Her cries of agony are so difficult to listen to for all who can hear them. A mammal is instinctively driven to respond to a crying kit, but what can Nick do now?

He can’t stop the infection.

The cub is already looking feverish, though he tries to hide his grimace from Selena. He rubs her head softly with his much larger paw, but she refuses to listen.

Nick feels like he’s just a ghost among the crowd. There’s so many things going on around him and there’s so little he can do to help.

His problems with Judy seem like they happened so long ago. Why did he think his problems were so big? There’s so much more happening.

The fox takes a look down at the cub’s arm. The bite is nasty, teeth marks going all away around. Blood is still trickling down, but Nick can see that some of it is starting to turn a much darker color than it should be.

The infection is taking him.

And no matter how tightly Selena holds on to him, there’s nothing she can do to save him.

“Excuse me, sir, can I get through?” someone asks from behind him. He looks at and sees an undead alpaca in a lab coat staring down at him expectantly. Without another word, Nick slides himself over to the side while keeping his paw pressed against Selena’s back for support.

She thanks him and quickly leans in to talk to the trio, her focus mostly on the infected cub.

“Hello, sweetie. My name is Doctor Packard and I’m in charge of the team trying to figure out how to beat this infection,” she says softly to him. He blinks up at her groggily, but nods his head to let her know that he’s listening. Selena stops crying as hard, just so that she can hear what the doctor has to say.

“What’s your name?” she asks sweetly. The bear coughs once, away from his friend, before responding.

“Barry…”

Bianca and Nick listen in on what she says to him.

“I’m sorry this is happening to you, Barry. I know that it doesn’t feel good. Now, what we’re doing down here is trying to find ways around the infection. But we’ve only just started to crack the code for what this disease can do. If you’d be okay with it, we’d like to try out some of what we’ve found so far. I can’t promise you anything. But you’d be helping us a great deal in our goals to stop the infection’s worst effects,” she explains to him.

Barry’s eyes widen a bit as he processes the enormity of her request. She’s not offering him a cure. She’s telling him right off the bat that she can’t save him.

But what she is offering is a chance for him to help others. A chance to progress just a bit closer to a solution that could, in the end, save the world.

Barry smiles weakly.

He’s all about that.

He doesn’t need to think it over much. If he’s a goner anyway, then he might as well do some good before he goes.

The only thing holding him back is the distraught bunny still clinging to his pelt for dear life. He can feel her body heat warming him up. Or...it might be a fever coming on.

“...Okay…” he answers. The doctor gives him a slight smile and pats his head knowingly. It’s something she’s been through, but she’s an adult. Being able to make a choice like this, at Barry’s age, is very brave of him.

But she already knows that he’s brave.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have thrown himself at that wolf to save the bunny.

“NO!” Selena screams in his face before her crying begins anew. The doctor flinches back from the sudden yell, but Barry has gotten used to it at this point.

“It’s okay…” Barry says down to the kit wrapped around him. She shakes her head furiously and grips him even tighter.

Barry looks between Bianca and Nick, giving them a pleading look. The arctic fox looks too out of sorts to help. There’s a storm raging in her mind and the outside world might as well be a figment of her imagination for the time being.

Looks like it’s up to Nick to get through to the bunny. He probably has the most experience when it comes to how emotional bunnies are, anyway.

“Selena…” Nick whispers to her, trying to get her attention. Her ears twist back to face him, but she doesn’t respond otherwise. “We need to let the nice doctor take him for now. They’re going to try to help him.”

The bunny lifts her head and turns to Nick with such a hopeful expression that it damn near breaks Nick’s heart. Her little nose twitches with such ferocity that some of her tears are sent flying off of her face. Her eyes, wide and glossy, beg Nick for any kind of good news.

His soul feels like it’s being shredded to pieces.

“They...they can save him…?” she asks, though her hiccups make it hard to understand her. Barry cringes and lays his head back, already starting to feel the effects of the infection.

The doctor speaks up before Nick can fumble his way through a half-baked answer.

“I’m sorry, honey...but we’re not there yet. We have a few things we want to try that will reduce the effects after death, but...he’s going to turn no matter what we do.”

Back into his chest she goes. For as tight as she’s squeezing him and how nauseous he already feels, Barry seems to be enjoying the hugs she’s giving him.

His good paw rubs her back in gentle circles as she cries more. The one thing keeping him from falling into despair right now is the feeling of his bunny friend, alive and warm in his grasp.

If that wolf had gotten hold of her, he might have never seen her again. Selena is small enough that she could have been pulled right through the vent cover. At least it was him instead of her.

At least she is safe.

A few doctors arrive at the huddle with a lowered stretcher being wheeled between them. Doctor Packard places a gloved hoof on the top of the bunny’s head to get her attention.

“Sweetie…we have to take him now before it’s too late to help him,” she says down to the kit. Selena hisses at the doctor and tightens her grip. Her efforts are rewarded with a light bop on the nose, courtesy of Barry.

“You silly bunny...I have to go be a hero and save the world!” he says dramatically, smiling even though his voice is strained.

“Y-you can’t be a hero if you’re dead! Stupid!” she screeches defiantly. Barry taps his cheek and pretends to ponder about something.

“I can’t? What about Judy Hopps? She’s still your hero, right?” he inquires. The effect on Selena is immediate. The poor bunny’s ears flop down to her sides and her jaw goes slack.

There’s nothing she can say to that.

Her grip loosens for the first time.

Nick looks around to see what else is going on. The groups have settled back down, and the kits have found a different set of caretakers for the time being, but otherwise nothing has changed. The fox can only hope that the undead who stayed back to fight off the wolves are doing okay.

“Okay…” Selena says in barely a whisper. Doctor Packard offers her a comforting back rub. Nick reaches down and takes the bunny in his arms, finally peeling her away from her best friend.

As soon as she can’t feel him anymore, her squirming begins. She flails around, trying to attack any part of Nick she can get her teeth into.

“NONONONO!” she wails, kicking her legs towards Barry in an attempt to swing herself to him. The cub looks up at her with a small smile, trying to ease her pain. Nick realizes that the whole time Selena was on him, he had been hiding his bitten limb from her.

It’s exposed again as the doctors slide him into the stretcher and lift him into a bed. Selena sees the wound and her body goes limp in Nick’s arms. Her crying stops and all she can manage to do is hiccup.

Bianca weakly slides over to where Nick is squatted down and checks the small bunny for any cuts that might have gone overlooked. Seeing none, she surprises Nick with a hug of her own.

He doesn’t know what to make of her sudden closeness. She’s a pretty vixen, of course, and Nick wouldn’t want his brother getting jealous or anything.

“I tried...I tried so hard...and I still let him down…” she mumbles against Nick’s shoulder. “Then I saw him with that monster’s teeth in him...and...I lost it...I saw red...I scared the kits to death and let one get infected…”

The more she speaks, the more she slumps into Nick’s side. Her eyes glaze over and lose their focus.

“It’s not your fault…” he tells her, wrapping his free arm around her. She shakes her head slowly, refusing to believe his words.

“It is good that I never had kits...I would have been an awful mother…”

“Screw off with that crap.”

Nick’s head whips down just as the shredded ears of his brother waddle in front of him. Bianca’s eyes both widen as she takes in the state of her companion.

He’s a mess.

There’s hardly an inch of him that isn’t covered with black ooze or some other form of undead viscera.

His ears are torn to ribbons. They can hardly be called ears anymore. He’s got bite marks all over him, and a particularly nasty gash along his side that exposes his ribs.

His bat looks like it’s been dipped in a dark chocolate fondue fountain, if there were chunks of grey matter also floating in it.

But he looks just as animated and flammable as he ever did.

Nick looks over to the vent opening, where a few undead workers are busy scooping out the mess of wolves that Finnick left behind in his wake.

Nick can’t muster any feelings of sympathy for the wolves who caused his friends so much pain and distress.

They knew what they were doing, even if they weren’t aware of who they were trying to do it to.

Bianca pulls away from Nick and embraces her mate, startling him in the process. His filth smears all over her suit, but it’s obvious that she doesn’t care at this point. She just needs someone to hold onto while she processes the events of the last few hours. 

Finnick slowly exits his rage mode and collapses into his mate’s arms, where he too starts to shake with emotion. His eyes peer up at the infected cub being wheeled over to the medical area. He sees the bite mark again and squeezes his eyes shut tightly.

Nick stands up with the limp bunny in his arms, giving the two some space. They have a lot of guilt and anger to work through, and they will need each other to get through it. They’re the only ones who know what the feeling is like.

The fox walks over to an empty chair, far away from the foul-smelling pile of mush leaking from the duct.

The bunny doesn’t respond to anything, her eyes not even focusing on the fox holding her. The only signs of life she displays are the occasional nose twitch and a shuddering breath when she forgets to inhale for too long.

Nick bites his lip, unsure of how to comfort her at all. In his life, this is the first time he’s held a youngster, let alone a bunny kit. The kind of activities he got up to always involved processes and mammals who didn’t belong around kits. So seeing Selena in her forlorn state brings about a helplessness in the tod that he didn’t know he could feel anymore.

Not knowing what else to do, he bounces her gently in his arms and hums an old tune down to her. It might be just a coffee jingle that always gets stuck in his head, but it’s something. Anything to distract her from the nervous voices of the families trying their best to move away from the infected cub.

Selena doesn’t say anything at his attempts to soothe her, but her ears do sway a bit with the tempo of his song.

A small cough is the most noise she makes in minutes. At least she’s responding to her bodily urges again, which is a step up from almost suffocating herself.

Nick tries to ignore a family of beavers giving him dirty looks for being a fox with a bunny kit in his grasp.

They should know how little room there is for biases in the new world.

The situation isn’t even clear yet and Nick is already starting to get untrusting looks.

Go figure.

Just because you save a city doesn’t mean it’s going to be your friend.

Another lab coat mammal breaks him from his thoughts with a tab on his shoulder.

“Hm?” he inquires as he looks up at the cheetah hovering next to him. She’s apparently one of the living doctors. She holds out a folded piece of paper.

Nick reaches for it, but the paper is snatched away by Selena, whose sudden movement startles the both of them.

She squirms in Nick’s arms and pulls herself into a position where she can unfold the paper and read it.

After a few seconds of silence, her lips moving along with the words she’s reading, a fierce pout spreads across her face and her cheeks grow white hot.

“Pen! I need a pen!” she yells at the nurse. The rattled cheetah pats around her coat but doesn’t seem to have any. Selena looks up at Nick with pleading eyes, which shimmer adorably at him. He is no match for such a tactic.

Thankfully, he always keeps a pen tucked into his shirt somewhere. Never know when he might need to forge a signature, after all.

Especially when off duty.

Judy would kick his teeth in if she heard him say that.

His bunny plummets back into his mind like a meteor, destroying what little mental peace he had found by holding Selena.

But the way she puffs up and reanimates herself as she writes in the paper brings a joy he didn’t know he was capable of feeling.

Nick doesn’t know what was written to her, but a glance up at the cub confirms his suspicions about the card’s origins. Barry is giving her his most reassuring grin, even going so far as to hold up his paw in a ‘peace’ sign.

The pissed-off bunny finishes scribbling her answer to whatever he wrote and shoves the card back into the paws of the nurse.

Selena returns the peace sign with a sign of her own.

A few families in the area gasp as they see what gesture the kit has apparently already picked up and mastered. Nick has to suppress a chuckle as she waves both of her cute little bunny paws in the air towards her terminally ill friend.

Barry sees what she’s throwing and his smile becomes truly genuine. Even being separated by an infection and hidden away from inside some sort of medical machine, the two youngsters manage to brighten each other up.

Nick’s heart aches painfully in his chest.

In a way, these two are experiencing exactly what Nick has been going through for the last few weeks. And from what the fox has seen from the two of them, they’ll have absolutely no trouble staying friends after he turns.

But he knows that seeing Barry going through all of this will undoubtedly destroy Selena.

Hopefully, the polar bear cub will be able to stay with his friend every step of the way going forward. If not...there’s no telling what kind of state both of them will be left in.

Selena can’t do it alone, but neither can Barry.

Nick can read mammals like no other, and he can see right through the mask that Barry is putting up for Selena’s sake. The fox can see that the cub is scared out of his wits. But his care for the bunny is outweighing his fear for his life.

He’s a good cub.

And an amazing friend.

This tragedy couldn’t have fallen on a less deserving couple.

The nurse brings the card back over to Barry, who opens it and quickly scans through what she’s written for him. Within seconds, the cub is laughing out loud and kicking his legs in glee. The doctors around him offer slight smiles, glad that his antics are lightening the mood around them. After everything that’s happened, it’s good to hear someone laugh.

It’s a moment of happiness that won’t last, but it’s one that they definitely need.

Nick hugs the bunny a bit closer to his chest.

He’s rewarded with her squirming around and pelting him with punches from her fluffy bunny fists. They don’t hurt, but he quickly gets the message that she’s feeling a bit more lively and is at least somewhat back to her spunky little self.

A loud knocking sound draws the attention of every mammal in the room.

Everyone goes quiet in an instant.

Nick looks up, a faint trembling beginning in his ears again. Something’s knocking on the heavily-plated metal leading up to the rest of the mansion.

Nick, along with the rest of the survivors and Barry, watch as Duke slides himself a bit closer to the metal structure with his drill in paw.

More knocking.

It’s not aggressive, like it would if someone was trying to knock it down.

But it could also be a trick.

The wolves aren’t the mindless, shambling corpses from the movies. They are just as crafty and cunning as any living mammal, and are especially deadly in a pack.

They can’t risk another break-in.

One young one being lost is already far too many.

Duke steps a bit closer to the door and clears his throat.

“What’s the password?!” he calls out to the being on the other side of the door. A feminine groan can be heard, followed by a more insistent knocking.

“This is MY home! There are no passwords!” Gazelle’s voice calls back to him. The tension in the room deflates in an instant. Duke almost drops his drill, but remembers that he needs to use it to actually get the door back open again.

The room erupts into activity as families gather themselves for what they assume is going to be a trip back up to the surface. Whatever makeshift living arrangements they’ve set up are quickly taken back down. It’s like they were so ready to leave that they had planned for it.

Nick’s brow arches irritably. Do they not understand what almost happened? What DID happen to the poor cub being tested on?

The survivors don’t know what kind of horrors were occurring right above their heads.

The fox huffs at the same time as the bunny in his arms. They look at each other and share a nod of understanding. Selena is just as annoyed by their behavior as Nick is.

The sound of Duke’s power drill unfastening the bolts holding the door shut fills the room and creates a nice, distracting white noise to combat the sounds of movement. A pleasant chatter tingles at Nick’s ears, further dragging his mood down.

It’s like nothing happened.

They’re just...going back to the way things were.

What about Barry? What about the undead fighters who might be truly dead now?

Oh well, time to go back to the more comfortable zone in the mansion.

The final bolt in the door is removed, allowing it to be opened. Duke slowly swings the door out towards him, but almost slams it right back. The refugees in the room look up at him with worry, seeing how distressed the weasel appears.

He quickly calms himself down and opens the door for real this time.

When Gazelle steps through, it’s no wonder Duke had reacted the way he did. The pop idol is far from being as glamorous and presentable as she is normally known to be.

She’s covered with blood that is very much not hers, and she’s still holding a dripping antique rapier she had found somewhere. Her outfit is mostly missing, revealing her exposed body to the masses. Every parent around the room covers the eyes of their kits. Without the clothing there to cover her, her original injury is plain to see.

Her middle section is hallowed out, much like Bellwether’s had been. The skin that used to cover her entire front side is entirely missing now. She looks like a cadaver that’s been emptied out for medical school students to examine.

But despite her missing features, the way she’s standing there with blood dripping from her body and her sword at her side…

...She looks like a warrior.

Nick takes a dry gulp when he notices the two pierced eyeballs stuck to her horns.

Did she gore someone in the face with those?

Ouch…

“PUT ME DOWN OR KILL ME, BITCH!” shouts a voice coming from Gazelle’s hip. The crowds of survivors look down slightly to the severed head gripped tightly in the pop singer’s hoof. Gazelle sneers down at the head and lifts it for all to see.

Nick and Selena are stunned into silence.

The room goes quiet.

Gazelle is holding the severed head of the Alpha wolf. The same maw that had been only a hair away from ripping his throat out is now screaming obscenities out to a crowd of suddenly-cheering survivors.

Selena subconsciously starts bouncing in Nick’s arms, the overwhelming sensation of relief hitting the emotionally-unstable bunny hard.

“SEE US, DOG! WE REMAIN!” Gazelle bellows, moving the head around so that the wolf can see the sheer amount of living souls they failed to reach. The gravity of the Alpha’s failure washes over her and her face goes slack.

“YOU LOST YOUR PACK! YOU LOST YOUR BODY! YOU HAVE LOST!”

The survivors shout in agreement and yell out insults to the cringing wolf.

“YOU THREW ALL YOU HAD AT US, AND NOT ONE OF US WAS LOST!”

The crowd starts to cheer again, but they are interrupted by the violent coughing of a certain polar bear cub. Nick and Selena spin their heads towards the medical area just in time to see Barry hack out a torrent of distressingly black fluid onto the cushioned mat below his bed.

While the medical staff rushes to his aid, a smug smile curls across the lips of the Alpha.

Gazelle spots the infected cub and her face falls.

“Looks like we got at least one!” the Alpha laughs cruelly.

Selena shrieks out the loudest, most offensive insult she knows, drawing surprised gasps from the survivors around her.

Even the decapitated wolfess looks shocked at the sudden vulgarity.

Barry manages a choked laugh, which only further confuses the Alpha.

“YOU TELL HER, SAL!”


	20. Barry Alive

Barry doesn’t feel so good.

This isn’t a shock to him or anything, but it doesn’t make it any less unpleasant.

The cub stares straight up at the ceiling as the doctors and scientists scramble around him, hooking him up to countless sensors and scanners. One or two are stuck cleaning up the foul mess he spewed out earlier.

He feels bad for them.

How silly is that? He’s infected...and is going to die...and he feels bad for a few doctors because they have to clean up some vomit. The cub huffs once at the ridiculous nature of his priorities.

His arm is aching terribly where it was bitten. They cleaned and wrapped the wound, but even Barry can tell that it was just for show. His entire arm has developed a tremble in it that only grows worse the more it aches. It feels oily and gross under the bandages. It also smells horrible, which leads Barry to believe that it’s probably oozing.

The rest of his body isn’t doing all that much better.

A harsh fever has fallen over him, increasing his body temperature to the point where he can barely breathe. He’s overheated, but at the same time, he feels cold all over and begs the nurses for a blanket.

They refuse on the basis that they need his body exposed for their tests.

This leaves Barry shivering and steaming hot at the same time, especially since he’s a polar bear in a district not suited for his naturally insulated fur. The most he can do to help make himself a bit more comfortable is to change positions often, which the doctors also don’t seem to want.

Barry lets out a shuddering sigh as he uses his good arm to press against his head. In the last little while, ever since he threw up, his head has been aching terribly. He never really got headaches before. Is this what they always feel like?

He leans his head up a bit and tries to see the room around the medical area. Selena’s card is still clutched in his paw, his shaking keeping him from writing a proper response to her vulgar reply. A small smile reaches the cub’s face as he manages to spot his best friend.

She’s still being held in the fox’s arms, the two of them seated in the same chair they’ve been occupying for a while. For a brief period of time, the rest of the survivors in the room had gotten up to go somewhere. Gazelle had shut that idea down pretty quickly and sent them back to their places. Grumbles were heard all around.

She asked for some undead helpers to go upstairs to assist with the cleaning.

Apparently the house was a mess, with lots of wolf carcasses to remove before families could safely return to their original sleeping areas. The weasel who had been watching the door was also tasked with reinforcing some of the areas where wolves had managed to get through.

This included the skylight on top of her mansion and, unfortunately, most of the air vents in the house. He can easily block that skylight off, but not so much the vents. Mammals need to be able to breathe. The weasel is going to have quite a project on his paws, between constructing the safety guards to place over the vents and actually installing them.

To Barry’s surprise, he didn’t look too upset by the task.

He actually appeared to be glad that he was helping.

Good for him.

A sudden stinging at the back of his throat almost sends more bile shooting up from Barry’s stomach. He catches it at the last second and swallows it back down, not wanting to make another mess for the nurses to clean up. They looked distressed enough about the first mess.

Barry stops his grimace when he sees that Selena is staring over at him.

Not wanting the small bunny to worry about him or see the state he’s in, he chokes down his discomfort and throws her a sly grin. He even manages to wave his good arm at her. The kit responds with a wave just as energetic as his.

She has a determined, hopeful smile on her face.

Oh-no. Is he accidentally giving her hope that he may be feeling better?

Barry can't smash her emotions all over again like that.

He knows he’s dying.

He...might need to make it clear to her, too. Just to stop her from thinking he might make it.

Not knowing what else to do, the cub allows a few coughs to break through. He isn’t ready for the fierce tingling that coughing brings, and ends up hacking violently. The doctors move around him and prepare to clean up any messes he might make, but he reigns himself in before anything can fly out of his mouth.

But when he glances over to Selena, the look of depression she’s giving him shatters his heart into a million pieces.

He wants to cry.

He hates doing this to her!

As the doctors swarm around him and stick some kind of needle into his bitten arm, he uses his other arm to cover his face and hide away from the world for a while.

It feels like every second that passes is bringing him that much closer to being dead.

It’s not fair.

He doesn’t feel like he deserves this.

Actually, no one deserves this. The end of the world doesn’t mean things are going to suddenly start making sense. Barry realizes that he’s just the latest victim to fall to a disease that has already taken so many.

The undead shuffling around him don’t seem too upset with their bodies. But Barry worries about the possibility that he might not come back.

The doctors had already injected him with numerous mystery liquids, and seemed put out with the results of each one. What if one of them is meant to keep the dead from coming back?

Barry’s entire body shudders as he processes the possibility that when he succumbs to his infection, he might be leaving Selena alone forever.

He doesn’t want to die…

His headache gets worse as he shakes.

But he doesn’t let Selena see him. He has to stay strong for her. At the same time, he can’t give her false hope, either.

A faint ringing becomes noticeable. Barry tries looking around for what could be causing it, but realizes quickly that it’s the same volume no matter which way he turns his head.

The ringing is in his brain.

Or something.

It’s really annoying. He wishes it would stop.

But it only gets louder over time, only worsening the effects of his headache.

Barry jumps a bit as someone touches his shoulder. The cub removes his arm from over his face and has to squint as the bright medical lights shine back down into his eyes.

Doctor Packard is standing over him, giving him a soft but neutral expression. He tilts his head as a response, afraid that he’ll spew again if he tries talking.

The alpaca clears her throat.

“Okay, Barry, we’re going to try something. This is a chemical we’ve been testing that we hope can slow the rate of the infection. I’m going to give it to you through the IV and what I’ll need you to do is tell us what you feel. Can you do that for me?” she asks genuinely. Barry likes that she’s leveling him and talking to him like he’s an adult.

The cub nods without much thought. He agreed to let them try out stuff like this one him anyway, might as well just go with it.

And if it works, he may get some more time to live. Selena would definitely like that.

Doctor Packard nods back at him and disappears from his vision. The next few seconds are spent waiting in relative silence, Barry unable to tell if she’s injected the liquid yet. He swallows a few more times, the taste of the black bile still lingering in his mouth.

“He’s at stage two right now,” he hears someone mumble off to the side.

Stage 2?

What does that mean?

Is he going to-

Barry’s thoughts are cut off as an intense burning sensation spreads throughout his body, making his heart beat painfully fast. The lights in the room increase to the point of being blinding. The cub is too stunned to scream at first, but noise breaks through eventually and he finds himself crying out for mercy.

It’s like every nerve ending in his body is firing off at the same time.

This is what being set on fire must actually feel like.

There’s no other way for him to describe it.

“AAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHH!” he wails, his screaming drowning out the noise of the doctors and nurses scrambling around him. The world around him is a blur of motion that he can’t focus on. Things are flying around him like a swarm of angry bees, leaving him breathless and confused. More shouts join his, but the others are more commanding.

“HEY!” someone shouts as Barry manages to pick up the sound of approaching steps. The flurry of activity increases until a small ball of fluff slides itself into his paw and rests there.

With chattering teeth, Barry struggles to turn his head in the direction of the thing touching him. He finally manages to look down just far enough to see Selena’s fearful gaze fixed intently on him. Her paw is secured to his protectively, providing a bit of much-needed warmth.

“OUT! CAN’T BE IN HERE!” one of the doctors shouts down at the bunny. She sneers over at him, daring him to come over and remove her. Whoever it is must have a death-wish, because they do actually reach out to try to grab her. Luckily, he avoids her gnashing bunny teeth as she is scooped up from behind by the fox who had been watching over her.

She screeches in anguish as she is pulled away from her friend by force. The fox gives her a look of guilt and regret as he carries her back to the chair. Barry tries to sit up so she can see that he’s okay. Maybe he can calm her down.

Sitting up proves to be the wrong move.

As soon as he pushes himself into an upright position, something compresses inside of his chest and launches itself right up his throat. The burning in his veins increases infinitely as he is sent sprawling back down the bed, his eyes rolled up into his head.

Doctor Packard peers down at him for a brief moment before vanishing.

Seconds later, a cooling sensation flows down his arm and envelopes his body. His heart rate starts to slow and he’s able to hear other noises besides the incessant ringing.

The first sound he notices is Selena crying loudly in his direction. She’s not screaming or demanding to be let go anymore; she’s just letting her emotions take control.

She must have seen that.

Through his heaving breaths and shaking chest, Barry takes the time to hate himself.

He hurt her again. She’s crying and it’s his fault.

As he laments his actions, his stomach lurches and sends more bile flying upwards. Barry scrambles to turn away from the bed, only to find a bucket shoved hastily into his side. The cub accepts the gift and pulls it close to himself just as the foul-smelling soup comes pouring out of his mouth.

The act of throwing up is strangely painful this time.

It wasn’t the first time he did it.

After the last few drops land into the bucket, Barry slowly begins to open his eyes. He peers down into the bucket and is horrified to see that the black sludge is filled with chunks of what he can only describe as floating, fleshy pulp.

The doctor takes the bucket away from him before he can get too good of a look at what came sliding out of him. Barry’s vision starts to blur again.

It’s too much.

It’s only been hours and he’s already falling apart.

He doesn’t scream or react this time. The cub knows that doing so would only concern Selena even more. She’s just now calming down and he doesn’t want to make her scream all over again.

Barry looks up at Doctor Packard, who is peering down into his puke bucket. A grim look spreads across her face, one that she tries to hide when she sees the cub watching her.

It’s too late for that, though.

Barry saw what she really thinks.

He sighs and leans his head back down against the pillow, returning his gaze to the ceiling. At this point, he just wants all of this to be over. Prolonging his inevitable turning is doing nothing but hurting the ones around him.

“Stage three…” someone whispers from behind his bed. They are quickly shushed and told to keep quiet around the cub. Barry takes another trembling breath and closes his eyes. The ringing is growing in pitch again.

The sound rolls through his head in waves, increasing the pain a little more every time it hits its highest note. Over and over it hits him, becoming so loud that he can’t hear anything else.

The ring becomes unbearably deafening in one ear.

Then the sound drops out from his left ear all together.

Barry blinks at the ringing lessens. It slowly fades away, but takes with it his hearing. It feels like he just got a bunch of water stuck in his ear, but he can tell that it’s different. There’s no sloshing sound or weight.

The sound is just...gone.

The doctors must have noticed his internal dilemma going on, because within seconds, they’re moving around him again and another cooling sensation is sent flowing through his veins. This time, a calming numbness is sent flowing through him.

For the first time in hours, everything stops hurting.

His eyes slowly close on their own. His consciousness pulls away from his vision.

The cub is asleep in seconds.

Luckily, he doesn’t dream.

*****

Barry’s eyes slowly peel themselves back open.

The first thing he notices is that the lights are dimmed. It must be day time now, but they probably told everyone to get some sleep while the mess upstairs is cleaned up.

The polar bear’s body feels like it’s on fire and frozen at the same time. The fever is worse, but he at least has a blanket to snuggle into now. His teeth chatter as his overheated body tries to equalize itself to the environment around it.

He can’t sit up. There’s just no energy left in him.

Barry notices that even though he hasn’t eaten in awhile, he’s not hungry in the slightest. There’s a constant ache in his middle, but it’s not coming from his stomach. The pain feels more like it’s being caused by his heart.

Every few heartbeats, another bolt of pain shoots through his. The constant skipping of heartbeats leaves him breathless and exhausted.

“Hey, you’re awake,” Barry hears a familiar voice whisper to him. The doctors aren’t as busy around him, the cub notices. There’s maybe one or two still hovering near him while the rest have gone to bed or to break. So this leaves very few mammals left who could be talking to him.

Barry glances over and confirms that it’s the fox watching him. In his arms is the sleeping form of Barry’s best friend ever. Selena snores every few seconds, the sound of which fills Barry with the only pleasant warmth he can feel.

She’s too cute.

“H-hey…” Barry mutters weakly. He can’t turn his body to face the two, so he settles with rotating his head instead. The fox had pulled his chair over sometime while Barry was unconscious and is sitting a short distance away from his bed.

The doctors don’t seem to mind him being so close, so he must have gotten permission.

“You’ve been out for a few hours. Little gal tried to stay up to see you, but she was just too tired. Can’t blame her, after everything,” the fox says with a small smile aimed down at the bunny.

“I’m Nick, by the way. I’m Judy’s partner.”

Now THAT gets Barry’s attention. He forces his eyes to focus as he answers Nick directly.

“Hi...I’m Barry…” he chokes, trying not to cough again. He’s afraid of what might come up if he gets into another hacking fit.

“Mhmm. I know. This little bunny won’t stop talking about you,” Nick tells him softly. The rabbit stirs slightly but remains asleep. Barry feels a heat in his cheeks that is definitely not because of the fever.

“Really…?”

“Yep. Kept asking how you were every five seconds. One of the doctors threatened to shove her mouth full of cotton balls if she didn’t stop talking.”

Barry cringes, knowing how the bunny would react to something like that being said to her.

“Oof. And?”

“She knocked him out. Threw a chair at his head!” Nick recalls, his eyes going wide. Barry swallows a few times to clear his throat before trying to say anything.

“Woah, did she?”

“Nah, not really. But she did try to attack him. Scared him off to some other part of the lab,” Nick chuckles. Barry scoffs lightly and lets himself form a tiny smile.

Just smiling is expending more energy than he has.

“Surprised...they let you...stay here…” Barry says between deep breaths. Nick nods and shrugs his shoulders before turning his gaze to the kit.

“I think they realized that the easiest course of action would be to just let her stay here with you. If they tried to remove her, I’m pretty sure she'd actually eat one of them!” he jokes.

Barry chuckles again, but his joy is cut off by another skipped heartbeat. Nick notices his pained expression and scoots the chair a bit closer.

“How’re you holding up, bud?” the fox asks sincerely. Barry waits for his blood flow to catch back up with his body. It’s a scary feeling, having your heart skip so consistently.

“Good,” Barry forces a reassuring smile. Nick lifts a brow and gives the cub an unimpressed look.

“Uh-huh. Look, Barry, I can see right through that mask you’re wearing. I know you’re trying to stay strong for Selena. I get it. Just...tell me how you really feel, okay?” Nick pleads gently. At first, Barry tries to act like his mask is genuinely him. But it only takes seconds for his bravado to crumble and for the truly terrified cub underneath to peek out.

“I’m scared,” he admits, his voice trembling. Barry’s view of his friend and her guardian fox is blurred by the incoming tears of terror and frustration. Nick doesn’t say anything. He just lets the cub speak his truth.

“It hurts and I’m scared...I don’t want to...make her sad, but what...am I supposed to do? I know I’m...going to die! If I act like...I’m dying, she’ll get sad now. If...I act fine, then she’ll get her hopes up...and just get even more sad later. I don’t know...what to do...I don’t know what…”

As he spills his guts, the cub loses control over himself and his emotions take over. Within seconds, he’s hiding his face in his arm and choking back sobs. The last thing he wants to do is wake Selena up just so she can see how he’s really doing.

Nick is quiet for a little while, letting the cub experience some of the emotions he’s been desperately needing to let out.

“...You’re her hero, you know,” Nick says suddenly. Barry pulls his face from his arm, ignoring the smear of blood from his nose staining his arm.

“What…?”

“You’re her hero.”

“N-no...Judy is her-”

“Judy might have been,” Nick says, shaking his head. “But Judy isn’t the one who took her place in that wolf’s grip. Judy didn’t save her. Judy isn’t trying to keep her happy despite being in pain. That’s all you, bud.”

Barry looks up at the dimmed lights on the ceiling, swallowing down a few lingering sobs.

He’s Selena’s hero? All he wanted to do was keep her safe and happy…

He doesn’t feel like a hero. Not after all the times he’s made her cry.

“Now...I don’t know this little bun like you do. I’ve only been around here for a day, after all. But from what I’ve seen from her, I think...I think she’s a tough kit. I’d say she’d do better knowing the truth. Surprises seem to stress her out. So…”

“So...I shouldn’t...hide this?” Barry finishes, gesturing to his sorry state.

Another skipped heartbeat draws a gasp from him. Nick sighs and looks down at the sleeping form of Selena. She looks so peaceful, which is a rare mood for her to be seen in. If only they could just wake up from this nightmare…

“...How do you...do this? With...Judy, I mean…” Barry asks out of nowhere. Nick’s ears flick up as he returns his focus to the cub.

“Do what?”

“You know...stay friends...even though she’s...dead…” Barry struggles to say. Nick flinches as the implications of his parallel friendship with Judy reach the clever cub. Barry picked up on the similar situations that would arise between him and his bunny.

“Truthfully...I don’t know. We’re trying to be together, actually. I think she keeps scaring herself into thinking she’s too dangerous. And...well, I’ve been trying to decide whether or not I want to turn. That way, we could be together with no issues…” Nick answers. Barry tilts his head a bit, not sure how to process what he’s being told.

“You...want...to be a zombie?” Barry asks in confusion. The fox cringes again, thinking that he may have accidentally undersold just how much the cub is going through.

“I don’t want to be dead...but...if it means being with Judy, then maybe…?”

Barry looks down at Selena, trying to picture himself in Judy’s place. He imagines a scenario where Selena would ask him to turn her. Just the thought of hurting the little bunny almost makes him throw up again.

Barry doesn’t know what to say. It’s definitely a hard situation to solve.

“Do you...think she will...want to be friends, after…?” he asks, his voice betraying just how vulnerable his emotional state is right now.

Nick nods his head as rapidly as he can without disturbing Selena’s sleep.

“Of course! Barry, she tried to beat the crap out of a doctor just to be near you!” Nick urges, trying to shoot down the cub’s depressing line of thought before it can bring him down.

Barry glances at Selena, weighing his possible options.

Which one will hurt her the least?

He-

B-BMP!

Barry lets out a silent scream as a massive pain shoots through his chest. At the same time, a white hot bolt of lightning feels like it’s digging its way through his head, sending tingling sensations down the left side of his body.

Everything is glowing bright around him.

No.

This can’t be it!

It’s only been a few hours!

He tries to turn his head back to Nick and sees that the fox is standing now, calling out to someone off to the side of the bed. A few mumbled curses can be heard, though Barry can’t focus on them.

His body is pulsing with such an intensity that he can’t even think.

“STAGE FOUR!” someone shouts behind him. At these words, the sounds of many paws striking the gym floor can be heard. Countless dark shapes move around him, a few of the bodies placing their weight on the cub’s flailing limbs.

Through the overwhelming feeling of his body shutting down and the deafening sounds of the doctor’s screaming at each other, Barry can summon just enough control over himself to turn his head to the side.

His eyes meet Selena’s.

She’s wide awake now, her body cradled in Nick’s arms for support.

She’s staring straight into his soul, her eyes wide and pleading. Without any words being exchanged, he can tell what she’s asking.

Please come back

As each convulsion gets worse, Barry feels another strange cooling sensation spreading through him. It numbs the actual pain he’s experiencing, but does little to stop the rapidly increasing brightness of the room around him.

Everything sounds like it’s miles away now.

Nick is giving the cub a determined, confident look. He offers a single nod.

With the last bit of strength he has left, Barry lifts one of his paws and gives his best friend in the world the same peace sign she had always hated.

“I’ll be right back,” he whispers in her direction.

He doubts she hears him.

But the motions of his lips are enough to get the point across to her.

Selena gives him a courageous pout and waves her middle finger at him.

“YOU BETTER!”

A humorous huff is the last thing that escapes the polar bear’s lips before the clot of blood starves his brain.

The room around him grows blindingly bright before slowly fading to black.

Barry’s last living visual is of Selena’s face.

And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

The black void swallows the young boy completely, taking his future and potential with him.

But just as his mind relaxes for what should be the last time, the void chokes on him.

His consciousness spins out of control.

Lights blink all around him as he brain boots back up, this time being controlled by an entirely different spark than the one he was born with.

With a cry of pain and hunger, the black abyss spits him back out into the waking world.

Barry yells out as his body reanimates.

Only seconds after passing away, Barry returns.

And everything feels wrong.


	21. A Shamble Forward

As Nick watches the light leave the eyes of the unfortunate polar bear cub, something breaks inside of him. All at once, he feels an intense burning hatred for himself over how he’s been seeing the world around him. He has been thinking that his problems are so daunting. But seeing just what everyone else is suffering through at the same time, he realizes that what he’s going through is barely a drop of water in the ocean of experiences going on right now.

Barry is what he wishes he was.

Unlike Nick, Barry had actually succeeded in saving his bunny.

Even at the cost of his own life, he put someone else first and didn’t regret his decision.

And his biggest concern right before passing away? He was worried about how his death would affect Selena. His own life was dwindling away, and he...just wanted to spare his best friend’s feelings.

Nick feels Selena burying her face into his chest and crying into his fur. He holds her tightly to himself, afraid that if he lets her go, she might never come back.

The fox feels a few of his own tears trickling down.

This world has never been fair. It’s even more unfair now.

But even through the end of the world, Nick is glad that he can still see the bonds between mammals burning brightly.

Nick sniffles a bit and looks up, the sight of the doctors strapping Barry’s limbs to the bed concerning him slightly. What are they doing?

A flash of a memory flows through his head and startles him into an upright position. Judy said that when she first woke up, she was feral. It wasn’t until she snagged her first meal that she regained her senses.

Barry’s body suddenly jerks up and pulls at the restraints, sending the fox a few steps back. Selena turns her head away from Nick’s chest to see her friend. Her eyes widen as she notices that he’s not acting like himself.

A snarl rips through the air, drawing a few nervous mumbles from the other survivors in the room. The doctors struggle to hold the polar bear cub down as he thrashes forcefully against the straps keeping him in place.

Barry’s eyes shoot open, revealing a bright, ghostly glow that sends shivers down both the fox and bunny watching him. Selena gasps when his head suddenly whips towards her and their eyes meet.

The cub growls ferociously at her, his jaws snapping wildly. Selena squeaks and starts shaking against Nick’s body, which prompts him into taking a few steps farther away from the feral husk. When Barry sees Selena getting farther away from him, his growls turn into desperate cries. The doctors look up at each other in confusion as the cub stops his thrashing.

Doctor Packard walks over with a vial of something in her grip. The undead alpaca stops when she sees that the cub has gone still. Her gaze tracks his and lands on the bunny held in Nick’s grasp. A deep, contemplative look spreads across her face as she watches the scene unfold.

Selena is staring right back at her friend, her eyes locked with the glowing red orbs. He stops crying and instead resorts to small whines. His closest arm to the bunny is the only one trying to break free of the restraints.

Nick watches with amazement.

“Move me closer,” the fox hears a tiny voice whisper from under his chin. He turns his focus to Selena in disbelief.

“He’s not safe right now, Se-!”

“Just do it!” she commands, her eyes not leaving the cub strapped to the bed. Nick looks up to the doctors for advice, but they’re not looking back at him. They’re too busy watching the youngsters.

Nick can tell that whatever is happening between them, it’s something new.

The doctors have definitely not seen something like this happen before.

So with great caution and with an eye on an escape route, Nick moves closer to the bed. He can tell that whatever is happening is growing with every step he takes. The glow in Barry’s eyes dims as he’s allowed to see more of his best friend’s face.

Selena reaches a paw out to him. The cub’s paw lifts up and finally snaps the restraint holding it down. A couple of the doctor’s jump at the possibility of him getting entirely free, but he doesn’t try. Once his arm is free, he lifts it towards the small bunny.

Nick moves her close enough so that the two can just barely touch each other. Selena tries to squirm in his arms to scooch close enough to hold his paw, but the fox moves back so that she can’t.

She gives him a frustrated kick in the ribs and knocks the wind out of him.

What is it with bunnies and hitting him?

The glow fades away in the cub’s eyes until they’re just simply a red color without illumination. Selena’s nose twitches at him and his crinkles back at her.

The kit offers him a tiny smile. Barry tilts his head and looks at her in confusion, but doesn’t react negatively at all. The doctors see that he’s leveled out to a constant level of familiar mindlessness, while still remaining feral.

Doctor Packard tears her focus away from the two just long enough to poke the cub’s neck with a needle of something. Barry grunts slightly, but keeps his eyes focused on Selena. It’s like she’s the only thing in the world he cares about, even though he’s feral.

Whatever the doctor gave him works fairly quickly, calming the cub down the rest of the way. The redness in his eyes vanishes completely and an intelligent spark returns to them. His body loses the tension that his feral mindset had caused, letting his restraints go slack.

Selena shudders with joy as she sees Barry’s eyes blink up at her in recognition. Nick can tell that she’s crying, but he doesn’t dare draw attention to her.

He’s crying himself.

“Sal?” Barry mutters weakly. The doctors around him burst into cheers and hollers, startling the recently-awakened undead cub. He whips his head up and tries to find out what’s screaming right in his ear. What he sees is a combination of living and dead doctors dancing with each other and jumping for joy.

He has no idea what they’re so happy about.

Nick and Selena share the sentiment, all three of them watching the medical team with equally concerned expressions.

An undead dingo, getting caught up in the moment, tries to swing a living antelope in for a kiss, not realizing that doing so would kill her. She stops whooping long enough to shriek in his face and punch his jaw clean off.

His jaw soars into what looks like a bucket of ammonia or some other chemical. The dingo retches as he somehow tastes whatever his tongue is floating in.

As the previously professional mammals make idiots of themselves, Barry, Selena and Nick watch on with unimpressed looks.

Why the celebration? Barry still ended up dying and turning.

Doctor Packard herself leans in and wraps her arms around the freshly turned cub. She squeezes him happily and gives him a few kisses on the top of his head, now that she feels safe doing so. Can’t infect the undead!

To his credit, the cub doesn’t try to push her away or make her feel weird about it. He lets her enjoy the moment of merriment. It’s the most animated he’s seen the normally-stoic doctor, so the sight alone is worth the embarrassment. Plus it gives him a chance to take in the slightly weird tingling sensations that come with being touched now.

“Thank you, Barry! Thank you!” she coos down to him with her forehead pressed to his. Selena sees how close she’s getting to him and pouts fiercely. Barry, still trying to wake himself all the way back up, just stares straight up at the ceiling and lets things happen.

“What...was that?” Nick asks over the sounds of the still-cheering doctors and nurses. Doctor Packard leans her head up so that she can look the confused fox in the eye. Selena’s burning stare knocks a bit of reality back into her, though.

“We tried a few different serums...none of them worked. But the last one...one of the most important...it is successful!” she cheers again. Barry doesn’t know if he likes or hates that he’s being squished against the larger wooly mammal’s chest now.

Selena’s fiery glare grows infinitely. She now has two burning suns where her eyes used to be.

“So...what does that mean?” Nick asks again. The bunny in his arms is struggling to throw down with the kind doctor, even though she definitely knows the outcome wouldn’t be pleasant.

“The last one was our highest hope for Barry. It’s an extract of Midnicampum holicithias that has been found to counteract the feelings of euphoria brought on by the infection. So, in turn, it stops the infection from making the host feel satisfied and that keeps it from controlling them. It’s able to keep the undead from turning feral!” she explains with an impossibly wide smile on her face.

Selena nods along without really understanding, but Nick feels his gut drop.

He knows that name.

That name...that plant...the one that caused him so much trouble in the past.

“OH, YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!” the fox exclaims and slaps his face. “YOU INJECTED HIM WITH NIGHT HOWLERS?!”

*****

Nick finds himself walking along the gymnasium floor towards the staircase, with a bunny kit walking on one side of him and a freshly-suited undead polar bear cub on his other. The two wanted to walk together, but the doctors thought it would be best if the other survivors didn’t see them clinging to each other for the time being.

The fox walks quickly with his destination (and events leading him to it) being planned in his head.

He needs to talk to Judy.

NOW.

As soon as the doctor mentioned where the night howlers are being sourced from, Nick knew that the bunny needed to hear it. He needs to find his friends and family, get his phone and get back to his apartment. Hopefully, she’s just chilling out there.

If she’s packed up and left, he...he doesn’t know what he’ll do.

Barry receives a few frightful stares from the survivors they pass, which Nick can tell is hurting him. Just a day ago, he was just as alive as any of them. But because he was brave and cared more about his best friend than his own life, he gets to be looked down upon.

Selena catches onto this and starts to stomp towards the ones looking at her friend. The family notices that they’ve drawn out her temper and quickly turn back to their own group like nothing had happened.

The bunny snorts at them as she offers them her two favorite fingers.

She is really getting some use out of those.

Before she returns to Nick’s side, she gives the suited cub a quick hug, thinking that she’s being sneaky. Nick sees this of course, but decides not to say anything.

A small smile touches his lips.

Looks like she’s the one protecting him now.

Selena returns to his side and the trio continue towards the stairs, where a few undead mammals are making sure nobody goes up yet.

Before they can reach their destination, a shrill whistle catches their attention. Nick peers to the side of the stairs, where a few familiar faces are resting.

Duke looks like he’s just finishing up with his stitch work on Finnick’s ears. It strikes Nick as odd that they don’t have the medical team doing this. What if Duke gets some of Finn’s blood in his eye or something?

Finnick gestures with his head for Nick to come over. Bianca is sitting against his side, the poor vixen looking dead to the world.

“Hey, Finn…” Nick greets his brother. Duke’s work is pretty impressive; the fox really can’t tell where some of the stitches are. The fennec looks pretty close to the way he was before the wolf attack.

“Hey, Nick. How’s the cub doing?” he asks, cutting right to the point. Barry perks up a bit and looks up at Nick. What, does he not recognize the cub because he’s wearing a suit?

Nick points down to Barry and lets his animated nature answer the question. Finnick’s eyes lock into the small form of the polar bear at the same time as Bianca looks up.

As soon as they see that he's moving around, but wearing a hazard suit, they know what has happened already.

Finnick’s ears fall down against his back, but Bianca reacts more like a distraught mother. The vixen snatches the cub off of his paws and pulls him into a tight, distressed hug. He yelps out at the sudden movements, but allows himself to be used as an undead teddy bear. Selena sees who is hugging her cub this time and calms down right away, knowing that Bianca had been the one to remove the wolf’s head when Barry got bit.

In Selena’s eyes, Finnick and Bianca are on her very short list of friends.

“You poor, poor cub! I’m SO sorry! This is all my fault!” Bianca wails in Barry’s face. He shuffles around nervously, her wide open jaws still making him a bit uncomfortable. But then he seems to remember that he’s already dead and returns the hug with force.

Bianca squeaks as she’s met with an unnaturally overwhelming amount of strength from one so small and young. He might be a polar bear, but his undead state has apparently made him much, much stronger than he should be. Finnick lifts a concerned brow at the side of his mate’s eyes starting to bulge out of her head.

“Uh...Barry? Think she’s going to pop!” Nick urges. The cub snaps awake and looks up at the vixen’s strained facial features. He gasps and immediately lets the poor fox go, giving her back her ability to move. As soon as she drops down and regains her bodily functions, the cub jumps back a couple steps and looks down at his own paws.

He didn’t think he was hugging her all that tightly.

Something inside him is definitely different now.

Barry looks over to Selena, who’s giving him a worried look. He realizes that he’s going to have to be extremely careful around her, otherwise he can easily hurt the tiny bunny. If he almost snapped an enhanced zombie in half...one who had already shown to possess the strength to pull heads from shoulders without effort...how strong is he now?

He feels a shiver passing through him.

Bianca looks up at him with a different expression.

“How...bad was it?” she asks weakly. Nick tries to decide if he should explain it or if he should let the cub do it himself. Before Barry or Nick can respond, however, Selena answers for them.

“He was super brave! It didn’t take very long, though…” Selena admits.

“Yeah, we noticed,” Finnick says as he jumps down to help his mate back up to her paws. “The infection usually takes about a day to finish mammals off. Bianca died in about that long. But you only lasted about seven or so hours, right?”

Barry nods, but is uncertain of the exact amount of time he had between being bitten and dying.

Nick remembers the one serum they had injected him with. One of the earlier ones had caused the cub to scream in such agony that he had to cover his ears. Whatever they had given him, it seemed to only increase the infection’s damage rate.

That was supposed to be the one that would give him more time, right?

Well, a fat lot of good that one did.

“They did some tests on him before he turned,” Nick explains. Bianca’s ears perk up, and suddenly Nick is under the intense burning stare of the undead vixen.

“They...what?” she demands.

“I said they could,” Barry manages to speak up. Bianca’s gaze turns to him and softens.

“Oh, you brave thing…” she whimpers, moving in to hug him again. He allows her to, this time returning the hug with the lightest one he can manage. The result is a much nicer share of affection than the last one they had attempted.

“What did they give you?” Finnick asks suspiciously, his bat already out and at the ready. Nick sighs at his brother’s overprotectiveness. Leaving a trail of dead doctors and scientists is the last thing Nick needs weighing on his consciousness right now.

“A few different things…” Barry carefully avoids. “Only one of them worked, though.”

Finnick and Bianca look surprised at this news.

“Which one?”

“Something that kept him from going feral when he first woke up,” Nick answers. Bianca’s and Finnick’s jaws gape open as they hear this. They look between Barry and Nick, trying to see if they’re joking.

“But he stopped himself before they even gave it to him!” Selena squeaks out. Everyone turns to the small bunny as she pouts irritably. “He wanted to hold paws when his eyes were still glowing!”

“Honey…” Bianca says softly to her, to spare her feelings. “He was probably trying to grab you...Nick, did you let her get close to him?!”

Nick shakes his head at the sudden accusation.

“No, that’s not it. He actually was calming down and reaching for her. His eyes stopped glowing before they even gave him the chemical. The doctors stopped what they were doing to watch. Whatever happened...it was strange.”

Bianca and Finnick look to the bunny, who has her arms cross and a smug smirk on her face.

“Told ya,” she rubs in. 

“Well...okay...but, what now?” Bianca concedes. “If they have a way to keep the undead from going feral, then what do we do now? What does this mean for the world?”

Nick starts to say something, but realizes that he really doesn’t know either. The steps following Barry’s successful trial phase are far above the fox’s head.

“I...have no idea. Maybe they’ll start testing it on other recently infected mammals. I’m guessing they’re going to try to use it on the already-dead to stop their urges to hunt, too. From what they told me, it cancels out the infection’s influence entirely, without needing for the host to overcome it themself.”

Finnick nods along, understanding the feeling of being the lowest step of the ladder. Things always go on above his head, so the best he can do is just go along with the ones who actually know what they’re doing.

“So what are YOU doing now?” Bianca asks curiously. “You’re going somewhere?”

“Yeah, I have to see Judy. The doctors told me something that she definitely needs to hear.”

“What?”

“The serum that cancels out the infection?” Nick offers.

“Yeah?” Finnick accepts.

“It’s made out of damned night howler extract.”

“You’re...you’re tugging my tail…” Finnick groans in exasperation.

“Not this time, Finn,” Nick shakes his head, oblivious to the heat in Bianca’s cheeks. “And you know where they’re sourcing the plants from?”

“No, shoot.”

“Bunnyburrow. Hopps Family Farm.”

*****

After convincing the husks guarding the upstairs doors to let them through, Nick and his group walk into the main level of Gazelle’s mansion. Everywhere they go, there are undead mammals working to restore the house to a livable condition. Actually, they’re not just restoring it, Nick finds. They’re finding the weak spots where the wolves broke through and reinforcing the areas with heavy metal sheets.

Duke nods his head in approval as he sees the recent additions.

Most of the wolf chunks and corpses had been removed, though some stains still remain. Strangely, there’s a dark black trail leading around the floor, where it looks like some of the wolves were dragged under some kind of single-wheeled vehicle.

The door to the room that Nick had almost been killed in is heavily damaged from the other side, but apparently held strong throughout the attack. The door’s open now, but when Nick looks in, he sees that the entire glass wall has been replaced with more metal plating. A few undead mammals are working inside the room to get it ready to live in.

Nick guesses that room is going to be used now.

That’s good. As long as that wall is defensible.

The memory alone of that wolf staring at him for who knows how long sends a cold chill down Nick’s back, all the way to his tail.

After exiting the hallway, Nick’s group enters the main living area of the mansion. The beds and tables are moved against the walls as a few mammals repair and block off the skylight above. The glass that had fallen down from it has since been swept away, but a few vacuums are running over the area just in case.

Don’t want any little ones cutting their paws open on glass shards.

Nick’s heart leaps into his throat when he sees his mother sitting at one of the tables, Corduroy held securely in her grasp.

His mother!

He had forgotten all about her!

Had she been upstairs during the attack?!

He rushes closer to her, the sound of which reaches her ears and startles her slightly. Corduroy sees Nick coming and offers her some soothing words to calm her down. The fox head is still inside of his ball, but the ball itself has some strange stains left over on it.

Just what had these two gone through? What about the rest of the mammals who stayed to fight? Is Mrs. Thistle okay? So many questions he should have been asking himself while hiding downstairs, but the incident with Barry had taken up his entire focus.

“MOM!” Nick yells as he reaches her. Her ears perk up happily and he can see her tail wagging faster than ever. She jumps up at him and encircles her arms around her son, hugging him like he’s just come back from the dead.

“NICKY!” she yells in his ear, whether she means to or not. “YOU’RE OKAY! AND YOU’RE…” She takes a few sniffs of his pelt. “...NOT DEAD!”

“Nope!” Nick chuckles as he looks down at her. His eyes open wide as he looks into hers. Since when did she have eyeballs? Can she see again?

The amber eye rolls a bit too far down as she stares at him and gets stuck there. Duke lets out a sigh and jumps up into her lap to fix the problem. Nick nearly slaps his face with his paw when he figures it out.

Of course.

Duke said he was going to make those.

It’s the main reason they left Nick’s apartment in the first place.

And the eyes actually turned out quite beautiful. Nick had gotten used to the empty eye sockets, so the heterochromia is a little jarring. Why green and amber?

Nick assumes it has some significance to her.

“Where have you been?!” his mother demands, still refusing to let him go.

“I was with everyone else downstairs. They bolted the door and we stayed there until the attack was over,” Nick explains. Marian lets out a sigh of relief.

“Oh, good! So nobody got hurt?”

Barry shuffles uncomfortably. The sound catches the motherly vixen’s attention, to which she sniffs the air to find out who else is there with them.

“We lost one...a little one…” Bianca admits, blaming herself again. “Wolves came in through the air vents and he jumped in to save his friend from them…”

Marian and Corduroy react to this with sadness and shock.

“But...the air vent? Really? Oh, the poor thing…” she laments. Finnick walks up next to Barry and slaps his back gently. Barry looks down at the fennec, realizing that he could barely feel the impact.

“Barry’s a brave cub!” Finnick declares. Marian’s nose twitches a few times as she takes in the smells some more.

“Is that...Barry right in front of me?” she asks. Barry nods, not knowing that the eyes in her head are actually just made out of glass.

“Yep!” Finnick answers for him.

The matron reaches out, finds the cub’s shoulders and pulls him close to her. Not knowing what to think yet of either stranger, Barry just stands still and lets her pull him around.

Without any warning, Marian leans her muzzle forward and starts licking the top of the cub’s head, grooming him.

His first instinct is to pull away from the zombie, so that he doesn’t get infected. But then he remembers that he’s now just as dead as she is and relaxes himself.

The group around is silent as she cleans him. Even Selena doesn’t seem to want to interrupt. Barry ends up closing his eyes and swaying from side to side, the tender affection lulling him into a state of pure bliss.

He hasn’t been bathed like this since...before his parents were infected.

Corduroy watches Marian with a loving expression, her care for someone she just met warming his missing heart and making him fall for her all over again.

Finally, the fox pulls away from the cub.

“Your friend is very lucky to know you,” is all she says.

“I know,” Selena speaks up, finally. Marian turns her head in the direction of the new voice.

“Oh? And who is this?” Marian asks softly, smiling without baring her teeth. She thought she smelled a living bunny.

Selena doesn’t seem to like the undead fox’s fake eyes on her and ducks behind Nick’s leg. Nick offers some comforting words to the small bunny, all of which are picked up by his mother’s sensitive ears.

A wide smile spreads across her face.

“Oh, Nicky, I always knew you’d make a wonderful father!” she squeals, holding a paw to her cheek.

Nick’s eyes shoot up to his mother in horror, afraid she had gotten the wrong impression.

“Oh, no! Selena isn’t mine. She’s a bunny,” Nick tries to clear up. The kit in question looks down at her feet and doesn’t speak up, which surprises Nick even more.

“Nicky, it doesn’t matter. I can hear the way you talk to her. Regardless of if she’s related to you, I can tell that you’ve been treating her like one of your own. I can smell her all over your chest, after all,” Marian giggles with a sly grin.

Nick’s face grows warm. He looks down at Selena, who is still hiding behind his leg. She looks like she’s having some deep thoughts of her own.

Is he acting like a parent?

He’s never tried, beyond faking it during his hustles with Finnick. And those times always felt so forced and sappy. But just being there for the kit and experiencing her pain with her…

It all felt as real as it gets.

Nick swallows down those emotions and tries to keep his mind on his task.

“What happened out here, anyway? What did you guys do when they broke in?”

Corduroy develops a bit of an evil grin that he knows his mate can’t see.

“I didn’t do much of anything. They tried charging at me but something kept scaring them off!” Marian recalls. Nick looks down to Corduroy, who is mouthing something at him.

‘I ran them over’

Nick blinks.

What?

He...ran them…

The blood marks on his ball catch his attention. If he didn’t know any better, Nick would say that the pattern on his ball matches the ones streaked all over the floor.

But that would...that would be too silly!

There’s no way that Corduroy...with his ball…

Corduroy laughs silently, seeing that Nick is understanding what he’s trying to signal to him.

Nick takes a giant breath and forces himself to accept the silliness as reality.

Sure, why not. Hamster ball roadkill isn’t any crazier than the other stuff he’s seen lately.

“Okay...okay...well, anyway, we got a tip that Judy’s family is still at their farm and are making night howlers for a serum to stop the undead from turning feral,” Nick spits out all at once to push the conversation forward.

Corduroy and Marian blink their eyes.

“...Okay,” they say at the same time. What else are they supposed to say to that?

It’s a lot to take in.

“So are we going back to the apartment?” Marian asks, holding her mate a bit closer to her chest.

“For now, yeah. I want to help them out here some more, but this is urgent,” Nick replies. “Are you two ready to go?”

The two exchange a few words before Marian stands with Corduroy in her grip. They both offer their son a nod.

Selena looks between Nick and his mother, a sad chill hitting her.

“Wait...you’re leaving?” she asks softly. Nick cringes hard, having feared this conversation.

“Yes, but it’s just for now,” Nick tells her, squatting down to talk to her on her level. The bunny’s bottom lip trembles as she looks away from the fox. Barry wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him. The bunny’s pout disappears as she melts into his embrace.

Nick looks up at Bianca and Finnick.

“You two coming with?” he asks.

“Yes,” Bianca says right away, but it’s obvious from Finnick’s look of disbelief that they don’t share the same answer. He turns his mate down to face him and shakes his head at her.

“What? What about the kits?” he demands. Bianca gives him a bleak expression and lets out a tired sigh.

“Finnick...I failed them. I am not suited to watch over those young ones...I am a bad mother!” she argues, though Finnick is having none of it.

“That doesn’t mean you abandon them! They need you right now! Especially after all that! Babe, I’ve watched the way they look up to you! They love you! Sure, you might have spooked them a bit, but I’m sure they’re fine!”

Bianca shakes her head, a few stray tears starting to leak down past her muzzle.

“NO! It’s because of me that Barry died!” she shouts down at the fennec.

“STOP THAT! It’s NOT your fault! You didn’t bite him! Stop acting like one accident defines you as a mother! Motherhood is NOT going to be constantly defending against wolf attacks!” he shouts right back up at her.

“YES IT IS!” she cries, her legs falling out from under her. She slumps down and falls into her mate’s arms, bawling her eyes out. Finnick’s expression lightens and he squeezes her with as much passion as he can.

“Well...that’s why I’m here, then…” he says to her, trying to calm her.

She continues to cry. The occasional hiccup escapes Finnick’s chest but otherwise no words are exchanged for a while. The others watch her with sad expressions, none of them wanting to see the normally bubbly vixen reduced to this.

“I want to stay with them…” he tells her. She calms down a bit, pulling herself out of his hug just enough to look into his eyes.

“You...do…?”

“I do...I know I might not like them jumping on me that much, but...the tykes have grown on me…” The memory of seeing her mate running around the room with a crowd of kits hanging off of his ears is pleasant enough to draw a small chuckle out of her.

“...I’ll stay too, then...as long as you are…” she concedes before burying her face in his body again. Nick watches the two of them, happy that they’re finding a place for themselves. And seeing his brother admit to wanting to be a father figure draws a parallel to his own situation with Selena.

Whatever is going on, it seems the Wilde boys are having to finally grow up.

“Guess this means you’ll be staying here?” Nick asks with a tiny amount of sadness in his voice. Finnick turns to his brother and gives him a single nod before returning to his mate.

“Yeah, for now. I’ll see you later, Nicky,” Finn replies with a forlorn tone of his own.

“Hey, if you’re going to be here, can you watch over these two?” Nick asks while pointing between Barry and Selena, who are still busy hugging.

“You sure, Slick? I know that the bunny seems pretty connected to you.”

Nick looks at Selena again. The bunny peers up at him with one of her eyes. There’s a silent promise that passes between them as they look at each other. Nick knows that he has to come back to her. And she knows that she has to stay for the time being.

Going outside in this mess of a world is nothing but a risk with no reward.

And Nick knows this now. He’s going to take as many precautions as he can for his trip back to the apartment. No more getting chased down by packs of undead wolves. Most of them are destroyed now, anyway.

Where is that Alpha? Or...what’s left of her?

Wait…

“Hey Finn, do you know where Judy plugged my phone in?” Nick asks suddenly. Finnick looks up and tries to recall any details that might help his brother.

“Uhh...not really, but I think Gazelle knows. Judy asked her where to charge it when she first got here.”

“Gazelle and Thistle are talking in the kitchen,” Corduroy says helpfully. Nick thanks him with a nod and jogs over to where he thinks the kitchen might be. The house is so over-designed and weird that any part could pass as a kitchen or a bedroom.

It’s like a modern art museum threw up a set of blueprints for a house.

The two he’s searching for are quickly found, being two of the taller mammals and the only ones who are standing still. Gazelle has since redressed herself with clothing that covers up her injuries, making her look much more approachable and casual again.

But that image of her standing there with the sword will forever be burned into Nick’s mind.

There are just some things you can’t unsee.

And Mrs. Thistle, as old as she is, is looking more and more like a grizzled war veteran. She has a few bandages covering her body from the fight and a large black eyepatch conceals her right eye.

She must have lost it while fighting the wolves.

But despite this, she looks more lively than ever. It’s like someone breathed an entirely different personality into this mammal. While she was once kindly and fragile-looking, with a vicious interior hidden away, she now more accurately reflects her true self.

She’s a fighter, apparently. And she’s never looked more at home.

“Oh, Officer Wilde!” Gazelle says warmly as she looks up from some sort of list the two are examining on the kitchen counter. Mrs. Thistle looks up, sees that her friend is still among the living and offers an equally pleasant grin.

“Still with us, Nicky?” she chuckles.

Nick decides not to bring the mood down by discussing-

“How is the cub?” Gazelle asks, spilling the beans anyway. Thistle’s face falls into a more somber but knowing look. Hopefully she had already been told about what happened.

“He’s, uh...with my family right now, in the other room,” Nick answers honestly. Gazelle’s eyes grow wide and she looks up, trying to spot him.

“Is he alive? Did any of the medicines work?” she asks urgently. Nick sighs and shakes his head, hating to have to spoil her mood.

“No, he passed a little while ago. Came back right away,” Nick explains.

Gazelle’s fist slams onto the table and Nick can swear that he hears a cracking noise.

“CURSE IT! Shoot...I had hoped that…” she mumbles, falling into despair.

“But the night howler stuff did work,” Nick continues. The idol’s eyes peer up into his own.

“The...the one that can keep zombies from turning feral?” she asks hopefully.

“That’s the one.”

“So he didn’t…”

“Uh-uh. They gave it to him and he woke right up. If you want to talk to him, he’s right over there.” Gazelle nods and is off in a flash, working her way over to Barry and his miraculously cured form.

Mrs. Thistle glances down at the fox, tilting her head a bit as she examines him.

“You look like you’re ready to go somewhere,” she muses.

“Yeah, just heading back to the apartment to talk to Judy about something,” Nick replies, finding his phone still plugged into the wall where he assumed it might be. Checking his phone revealed that it has a full battery but no new missed calls or texts.

He tries to call Judy really quickly, but as he thought, she isn’t answering.

Nick sighs and resigns to having to leave.

And after the last trip, he isn’t looking forward to this one.

“You want to come along?” Nick asks the elderly feline as he starts to walk back to his group.

Mrs. Thistle shakes her head without even considering it.

“Sorry, Nicky. Got a lot going on here, now. And between you and me...I think I may have found a new calling,” she says, her voice turning giddy for a moment. Her excitement is contagious and Nick finds himself smiling with her.

“But what I can do is get you some muscle for the trip. Don’t want another chase, do we?”

“What do you mean ‘muscle’?”

*****

A short time later, Nick is led out of the front of the mansion with no less than six tigers surrounding him on all sides. They offered to carry him, but Nick had refused on the grounds that he needed to stretch his legs again. His lack of exercise is what almost killed him last time.

Marian and Corduroy are the only other ones returning to the apartment with him.

Even Duke had turned the fox down, saying that he was too busy with repairs and modifications on the house to leave at the moment.

Nick had never seen the weasel smiling so much. Everywhere he went, the other workers offered him waves and appreciative smiles.

Nick can tell that he finally feels like he belongs somewhere.

And what a cause to belong to!

With Finnick and Bianca watching over Barry, Selena and the rest of the kits, the expedition team had made their way to the doors.

So here they are, leaving the house after what turned out to be one of the most stressful days of their lives. It’s not farewell either, seeing as Nick knows he absolutely has to keep his promise to the orphaned bunny.

As the tigers walk them off the steps and start down the path leading to the road, Nick hears a hostile and familiar voice calling out to them.

“HEY!”

Nick, Marian and Corduroy look over to where there is a long stick poking up out of the ground. There’s some kind of lump stuck on top of it.

“GET ME DOWN FROM HERE AND I’LL DO...HEAD THINGS!” the Alpha begs. Nick smirks when he realizes what the Alpha’s ultimate fate turned out to be. For some mammals, being stuck on a stick and being made to look out over the hills of Zootopia wouldn’t be that bad of a way to spend eternity.

But for the Alpha of the wolf pack, whose purpose now is just to warn others about trying to mess with the mansion, Nick can hardly think of any punishments more fitting.

The Alpha starts to shout at them again until she sees just who she is screaming at. Nick thinks her gaze focuses on him first, but he then notices that she’s actually staring in horror at the bundle held against his mother’s chest.

Corduroy smiles evilly up at her, prompting her to scream in absolute terror.

“AAAAAAAHHHHH GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU MONSTER!”

“Love you too, baby!” Corduroy taunts back at her.

Marian pouts a bit and jostles his ball.

His head bounces around just enough to make him shut up.

But that smile doesn’t vanish.

Nick swallows in fear of what the tod could possibly be capable of.

Just what had happened in the mansion during the attack?


	22. Roadkill

The trip back to Nick’s apartment is...actually pleasant.

The sun is just starting to set as they walk, giving the trio and their entourage some glimpses of the night life that is beginning to wake up. The streets are much more peaceful now that there aren’t any packs of wolves patrolling them and looking for fresh meat.

The tigers circled around the trio definitely create a fair amount of space for them to move around. Nobody even dares getting close enough to smell Nick.

Nick’s guards don’t say much, trying to stay as professional as possible. The one tiger seems to have a pair of indents in his chest that are oddly shaped very much like two little bunny feet. Was he the one that Judy kicked through the door yesterday?

The grimace on his face seems to hint at him being the least happy to be helping the fox.

Corduroy draws Nick’s attention momentarily as he sees another gathering of heads rolling along the sidewalk together. He greets them loudly and there is another sharing of whoops and hollers. Some of them notice that Corduroy has a spiffy ball around himself that would, in theory, keep him from getting rocks and debris in his fur while rolling.

They ask him where he got it, but Corduroy doesn’t want to draw even more attention to Gazelle’s mansion. He also doesn’t know where she got it, so he just has to claim ignorance. A few ‘Aww’s are heard, but they quickly get over their disappointment when the streets sign signals for them to cross.

Nick watches the herd of rolling heads go on their merry way with a hint of amusement. They must stay together so they’re easier to see and avoid. Don’t want to be the last thing a car sees when it tries to run a red light.

His eyes follow the heads as they turn into the open doorway of a fitness club. A poor undead mink had just been walking out of the door when they rolled their way through. The mustelid shrieks as she is bowled over by the heads, who stampede over her until every last one of them enters the gym.

The mink stands back up after a few minutes, looking around and trying to figure out what just ran her over so many times. She looks a bit flatter than she had been, but is otherwise unharmed. A peeved scowl reaches her lips as she regathers her exercise gear and storms off down the sidewalk. Nick chuckles at the antics of the head herd.

If only she had seen them rollin’. Maybe then she wouldn’t be hatin’.

Corduroy gives one last woot before relaxing into a satisfied smile. Marian smirks pleasantly down at him, happy that he’s at least seeing some others that he can relate to entirely. He even has a bragging bonus because of his ball!

One of the tigers chuckles as well, but is silenced by a quick shove from one of the other ones.

Why can’t he enjoy the scenery? 

“You know, you guys don’t have to act like actual body guards. I get that you’re trying to stay professional or whatever, but it’s cool. You can talk to each other if you want, I won’t tattle to Gazelle or anything,” Nick offers with a smile. A few of the tigers look at him for a few seconds before turning back to watch where they’re leading him.

“Thank you boys, by the way. I heard you’re the ones who saved my little Nicky from those terrible wolves yesterday. And you also helped save so many survivors!” Marian gushes to them, which actually does relax the tension in their shoulders slightly.

“You’re welcome…” mumbles one of the tigers. A couple of them, including the one with the bunny marks on his chest, give him irritated looks that shut him up. Nick frowns and looks between the lot of them, realizing that they’re holding something against him.

But what did he do?

“...Are you guys angry about something?” Nick asks. They tense right back up and act like they can’t hear him anymore. Okay, this is getting ridiculous now.

“Look, if I did something that pissed you off, please, just let me know. I can own up to it, and I definitely didn’t mean to upset you guys.”

The dented tiger grunts and rubs his face with his paws.

“Iz not you…” he groans. “Iz bunny rabbit.”

Nick blinks.

Woah, cool accent. Must be from outside Zootopia.

“Who? You mean Judy?”

The tigers around him cringe and shiver nervously just as the mention of her name. Nick takes another look at the dent in his chest.

“Did she do that to you?” the fox asks cautiously, making sure not to sound like he’s making light of their fears. The injured tiger nods and rubs at the spot.

“She...too strong to be bunny. Fought all tigers by self. Beat all tigers by self...threw Chadwick through door. Then wolves almost got in through missing door...bunny almost kill all survivors…” he explains with a low growl rumbling at the back of his throat. Nick’s heart skips a beat as he realizes why the tigers are so nervous around him.

They resent Judy for almost getting everyone eaten by wolves. Did the wolves follow her to the mansion when she stormed in? Is she why they knew where to attack in the first place?

Oooh.

Nick grits his teeth irritably, his mind now firmly made up about what he’s going to have to say to his bunny. If she’s even there anymore, that is…

But he needs to knock some sense into her. In her fury and following depression, she put way more lives at risk than if she would have just calmly talked to him about it. She said she was a danger to him? Well, leaving right before a wolf attack didn’t reduce his chances of dying any.

Would...would Barry have made it if she had been around?

Nick shivers, deciding not to think about painful ‘what if’s like that. They’re not useful and can only serve to make his mood plummet.

And his mood is already not the best, since he’s missing his brother and the rest of his pack. When they left the apartment, he felt connected to everyone in one way or another. It was like one big extended family.

But now it’s just him, his mother, her mate and a bunch of strangers huddled around them.

And he now has to answer for his bunny’s actions to a group of tigers who already don’t like him because of the mess he almost caused.

“Look, guys...I’m sorry about everything that happened yesterday. I know Judy might have acted without thinking, but please don’t think she’s always that way. She’s normally a very sweet little bunny. I’ve...just been putting her under a lot of stress lately, with my whole ‘should I turn or not’ decision I keep flip-flopping on…she got upset when she thought I went out to die.”

“Wait…” Chadwick halts, holding a paw against his head. “You want to turn?”

“Well, I...I’m not sure…” Nick admits. “I know that I could be doing a lot to help the world regrow through all of this, but...I also want to be with Judy. We can’t really do anything together if she’s constantly worried about me getting infected. If I was dead too, we wouldn’t have anything to worry about. But I also know that we’re only two mammals, and me choosing her would be the selfish option, no matter how much I love her.”

Chadwick listens as they continue to walk, his expression of irritation lessening into something more resembling understanding. Nick stops and tries to gather his thoughts, giving Chadwick a chance to inhale and sigh.

“Chadwick...not know answer to problem. But maybe...picking one iz not best option? Maybe should pick two,” he says in his deep, commanding tone.

As the two talk, Marian listens along, trying to form a mental picture of just what her son is going through. She had been on the outside and seen how this situation is affecting him, but hearing it from his own lips is a bit more eye-opening.

“Psst. Honey, it’s sliding out,” Corduroy whispers from below. She gasps and reaches up just as one of her glass eyes tries to make a run for it. Thanking her mate, she slides the orb back into place and continues listening.

Corduroy smirks up at the silly wall-eyed look she is wearing now but decides not to say anything. He thinks it’s cute.

“What do you mean? I can’t help and be dead at the same time. The undead can’t make life,” Nick asks in confusion. The tiger waves his paws, signaling that he didn’t mean it like that.

“No no no, what you do is help world and then go to bunny. You know, like work and then retire. Help and then relax,” he explains. Nick opens his mouth to say something, but realizes that what the tiger suggested is actually more of just an extended version of what he planned to do originally. He was just going to take the cup, give them something to work with, and be on his merry way. But how much would that actually help anybody?

No, if he was actually going to make a difference in the long run, he would probably have to help for quite awhile. But...he could always go to Judy afterwards, right?

They can MuzzleTime even if he’s not around her. That might actually make her feel better about the whole thing, since she wouldn’t physically be around him to accidentally infect him.

“You spend time laying many beautiful vixens, then settle for mean little bunny!” Chadwick finishes, slapping his fist into his other paw like he just solved world hunger.

“Okay, that won’t go over well with Judy, chief,” Nick cringes. Just the thought of Judy rocketing into his room every night to make sure he’s staying faithful sends a chill down his back. There aren’t enough doors in the world to keep the fierce bunny out.

“So? You are fox, bigger than little bunny!”

“That little bunny kicked all your asses in minutes, don’t forget!” Nick argues as he crosses his arms and throws Chadwick an exasperated look. The tigers flinch away from the tod like they’re been struck. One of them leans a bit too far out into the road and is struck by a medium sized vehicle.

Nick’s jaw hangs open as he watches the car crumple into the tiger’s body, sending the driver soaring out into the road, screaming the whole way. The tiger looks down and brushes the broken remains of the smashed vehicle off of him like it’s nothing more than a few loose wood chips. The stricken tiger rejoins the group and walks on as if nothing had happened.

Nick follows along in a daze, trying to process just what kind of strength these undead felines possess if one of them is able to tank a car crash without flinching.

What kind of strength does Judy possess if she’s able to defeat a team of these monsters in seconds? Nick shivers as he imagines what she could accidentally do to him with those bunny thighs of hers…

Marian suddenly slaps her son on the back of his head, startling him back to reality.

“Stop thinking dirty thoughts!” she scolds.

“What the-...I didn’t say anything!” Nick complains as he tends to his aching noggin.

“I can smell you from here! Smells like…” she takes a few more whiffs. “Thigh thoughts! Stop thinking about Judy’s thighs until we get home at least!”

The tigers around him chuckle heartily. Nick feels his face flush and suddenly he wishes he had been the one getting struck by that car…

“You can...smell my thoughts?” Nick groans, trying to hide his face. He peers up at his mother and yips when he sees her eyes both rolled up into her head as she smiles at him. It’s probably the most unnerving thing he’s ever seen her do.

Yes, it’s worse than the empty sockets.

Corduroy has a look on his face like he’s about to burst out laughing at Nick’s expense. The russet tod grumbles as he moves closer to his mother and fixes the positioning of her fake eyes. She thanks him quickly and they continue on.

Before too much longer, the trio can see Nick’s apartment approaching them in the distance. All at once, Nick feels an intense urge to bolt.

Right now, he doesn’t know if Judy is still there or has left.

He still has hope in his heart that she didn’t pack up and move out.

Once he goes inside, the truth will become known and he won’t be able to live in blissful ignorance anymore.

But then he remembers just who it is he’s going to see. Judy is his bunny, after all...right? She couldn’t do that to him, even if she wanted to. She has to just be up there, waiting for him to get back.

Or, she could be at work.

What was her schedule again?

Nick shakes his head and forces himself to walk closer to the building looming closer with each fateful step he takes. Off to the side, he passes by a familiar building and is momentarily startled a few steps to the side.

There’s a dark grey wolfess sitting on the steps, chewing on something that looks like an old bone. Was she a remaining member of the wolf pack? He expects her to charge at him as soon as she sees him, but all she does is glance curiously through the conspicuous crowd of tiger body guards. When she sees Nick staring at her, she just frowns a bit in confusion and switches the bone to the other side of her mouth.

Something moves behind her.

Nick watches the familiar face of an undead sheep walk up behind her and offer her a plate of something red and bloody. The wolf breaks her focus off of Nick long enough to accept the plate of food. Before the sheep can walk back inside, the wolf pulls him down onto the step next to her and points at Nick.

The sheep offers an even more confused look.

Nick waves half-heartedly at the onlookers. The blink at him a few times before returning the gesture, not seeming to care that he’s still alive. It appears that the most interesting thing about his security detail is the huge tigers huddled together like they are.

No else cares that Nick is food to them.

They’re all just...chillin’.

And then Marian turns her head in their direction and a loud bleat escapes the zombie sheep as he scrambles to pull himself back inside. The wolf spins her head towards the sudden blur of activity, but is quickly reduced to laughter as the sheep slams into the closed door and slides down in defeat. She holds her gut and kicks her legs in joy as the sheep pulls himself back into a sitting position and cracks his spine back into place.

Wow, that place looks like a riot.

Maybe Nick can look into getting a room there...or at least visiting.

Nick’s posse keeps moving and they arrive at his apartment building in short order. It looks just as old and worn as it usually does.

It’s only been a day since he left, but it seems like it’s been so much longer...so much has happened in such little time. He can feel that part of him is changed now. He can’t tell what, but he does know that he already misses Selena and Barry.

Her spunk and his relaxed acceptance feel like part of him now.

Their absence is truly jarring.

The tigers have to duck down to get inside, and even after entering, can’t stand at their full heights. Luckily the group can just take an elevator to get up to Nick’s floor.

Before he knows it, Nick is back at his own apartment. The door to his room is both haunting and inviting. The next few minutes can be either heart-breaking or relieving and he knows it. All that separates him from his uncertain future is a few knocks on the door.

Will she even answer if she hears him? Nick doesn’t have his key and the door is visibly locked.

Marian places a paw on his shoulder, jolting him out of his worries and into the present. He turns to face his mother and gives her a nervous, timid look. It’s not an expression she’s used to seeing her son wear, that’s for sure.

She offers him an encouraging smile. Corduroy does the same, but he had slipped at some point during the walk and is upside down. So he could be trying to frown, for all Nick knows. Corduroy is a bit silly that way.

The tigers have to crouch down in the hallway around him and only look impatient.

Nick takes a deep breath and lets it out, trying to clear his mind of any doubts.

He reaches for the door.

A few loud knocks ring out as his knuckles strike the familiar wood.

The next few moments of silence are the tensest he’s ever been through.

Is nobody home?

The door is still locked and the key isn’t-

“...Hello…?” a weak voice calls from inside.

That’s Judy.

That’s his bunny.

The sheer amount of weight that lifts from his shoulders is staggering. She didn’t leave! She’s still with him! His fears didn’t come true and it’s the happiest he’s felt in ages.

“Judy! It’s Nick. Can you let me in?” he calls back.

There’s a brief period of uncomfortable silence.

“Nick? Why did you...why are you here?” she asks, her voice sounding closer but more worried. Something seems off about her; she’s definitely not feeling like herself still.

“Carrots, I gotta talk to you about something. Can you please open the door?”

“...No.”

Nick blinks in surprise, thinking he might have misheard her.

“No?”

“No.”

“Judy...this is my apartment,” he says, unimpressed with her attitude.

“Then...come back in a bit or something, and I’ll move my things out. Then you can have it all to yourself,” she says with an empty tone. Marian’s grip on her son’s shoulder tightens at these words. She can feel the slumping on Nick’s shoulders just from hearing something so soul-crushing.

“Judy…?” Nick asks with a broken, trembling voice.

Slight sniffles can be heard coming from the other side.

“Nick...you can’t be around me. I’m nothing but a risk for you! I...I ALMOST BIT YOU!” she wails, finally letting her emotions take over. Nick’s eyes widen for a moment but he quickly regains his composure.

“N-no you...when?” He can’t remember a time when she looked like she was considering it.

“Back at Gazelle’s place! When they were talking about you pairing up with another vixen...I...I got jealous and...got so close to sinking my teeth into you…”

Nick closes his eyes and takes another breath, letting her confession flow through him.

“That’s okay,” he says quietly.

“...What?”

“I’m not mad at you for that.”

“B-but...Nick…”

“I AM mad at you for leaving right after, though…” he admits. She doesn’t answer for a little while. It sounds like she tries to say something a few times, but her stuttering keeps her from spitting out her thoughts.

“But...but...I put you in danger…”

“Judy, the mansion got swarmed by dozens of undead wolves shortly after you walked out.”

Judy gasps and chokes down some air, almost reducing herself into a fit of coughing.

“W-what?! Are you...did you...did you get bit?!” she asks loudly.

“No, no, I’m fine.”

“Oh...oh, okay, that’s-”

“But one of the youngsters ended up getting turned.”

There’s a few more moments of silence before Nick hears the beginnings of what knows to be Judy’s agony cry. She only makes this noise when she’s truly, emotionally in pain.

It’s an ugly noise that makes the tigers cover their ears.

But to Nick, it just sounds like a bunny he knows he needs to comfort.

“He’s okay, he turned peacefully. They even found out a drug to use that kept him from going feral with hunger when he first woke back up!”

Judy cries for a bit longer before calming down enough to answer him.

“...Really…?” she responds with a cute little hiccup.

“Yeah, but that’s not even the biggest news. You know where the plant for the medicine is being produced?” he teases, dragging out her curiosity and using it as leverage.

“Where?”

“Open the door and I’ll tell you,” Nick grins. A frustrated groan can be heard coming from the other side. She sounds like she’s coming to unlock the door, but Nick has a better idea.

“Actually, how about this? I’ll find my own way in,” he says smugly, his voice dripping with playful mirth.

“You’ll...what?”

Nick signals for the tigers to go take a break or find something around the apartment to eat. He knows that this might take some time. They nod appreciatively and crouch-walk their way back outside to find something to do.

Marian and Corduroy get a vague sense of what’s going on and take seats against the hallway wall.

First, Nick jiggles the doorknob.

Then comes the banging on the door.

“What?! Nick, what? I’ll let you in, you don’t have to-!”

“JUDY! JUDY, THEY’RE COMING! LET ME IN! HURRY!”

“H-hold on! I’m right here! They...waaaaaaaiiiit a minute. You aren’t seriously…” she halts her fumbling of the door lock and takes a suspicious step backwards.

“NONONONO AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Nick screams in his most convincing death voice. What follows is what he knows is an over the top and silly recreation of her original attempt to get in to see him.

Gurgling noises and tearing sounds included.

Judy is quiet again.

“Nick...are you actually-”

“Blood Bloooooodd Blood!”

“NICHOLAS!”

“And...death!”

“WILDE!”

“Oh, hey Judy.”

“WHAT?!”

“Let me in!” he laughs loudly before pretending to jiggle the door knob again.

“NO!”

“Suit yourself! I’ll see you soon, Fluff! Might want to check all the locks!”

“Dumb fox!”

“Sly bunny!”

The sound of the locks on his door being fastened is like music to the tod’s ears.


	23. Love Bites

Barry can’t sleep.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to, it’s that he can’t.

Something inside of his new undead body is keeping him in a constant state of alertness. As much as he tries to shut his eyes and get some much-needed rest, he just can’t relax.

He looks up at the dimmed lights inside the guest room where he’s staying. The entire interior was recently redone to make sure that nothing could get in again. The giant metal wall might keep the ferals out, but it does nothing to lighten the atmosphere.

He’s alone in the room.

The others thought it would be best if he didn’t sleep near the living kits, just in case. He can’t imagine himself trying to hurt anyone, but this new body is still a mystery to him. For all he knows, it could just take over at any time if it decided to. The looks the other kits gave him were bad enough, but being told that he was too dangerous to even sleep around them was heartbreaking.

At least he gets the entire bed to himself.

It just sucks that he can’t make good use of it.

Is every night going to be this boring now? Just sitting in a dark room and waiting for the sun to rise in complete silence?

The cub groans and rolls around on the mattress, trying to amuse himself with the sounds of the bed springs. For a wealthy pop star, Gazelle has some really squeaky mattresses. She should definitely be able to afford better.

Just look at her home!

Barry sighs and resigns himself to simply sitting up and bouncing himself on the bed. He can’t even see outside now that there’s metal walls instead of windows. The cub has never felt so disconnected from anyone and everyone. His family, his friends, the city...he’s locked away from all of them.

And all because the stupid wolf bit him.

Why couldn’t he have just yanked her out of the way? He had to be the tragic hero and take her place in the wolf’s jaws. Had he been allowed a few more seconds to think before he reacted, he could have still been alive.

But he doesn’t regret saving Selena.

Not in a million years.

At least the one who killed him what he deserved. Having your head ripped from your shoulders and your skull caved in with a bat can’t be a pleasant way to spend your last few moments.

Barry’s last moments were spent looking at his best friend as she made him promise to come back.

And he kept that promise.

The sound of his door creaking open draws his attention. A sliver of bright light illuminates the corner of his room for a moment before the door closes again and casts him back into darkness.

Barry blinks and looks around, trying to see what just entered the room with him. His first instinct is to run so that doesn’t risk getting infected, but his sad reality quickly hits his again.

Too late for that.

Something hops up onto his bed right in front of his face, startling him back into his headboard. The intruder squeaks in surprise, having not expected him to be awake and upright.

“Who is that?!” Barry whispers to whoever is sitting on the bed in front of him.

“It’s me, you dummy!” Selena’s voice mutters back from the darkness. Barry relaxes his posture and lets out a breath.

Of course it’s Selena.

No one else wants to be around him right now.

The cub tucks himself back under the covers and squirms himself into a comfortable sitting position. He can feel the mattress squeak slightly as his bunny friend does the same.

“Selena, what are you doing in here? They don’t want me around any of you…” Barry says, trying to distance himself a bit from her so she doesn’t end up accidentally getting infected or something. Just a tiny drop of spit could kill her, a fact that terrifies him to no end.

“Couldn’t sleep around those jerks,” Selena says simply as she moves closer with what seems to be her blanket and pillow. Barry slides away from her in panic as she casually invades his bubble.

“Selena! Don’t! You could...you could catch my infection!” the cub urges, using his blanket as a shield from the little bun.

“Oh, chill out! As long as you don’t bite or make out with me, I’ll be fine!” she complains. She slides closer to the cub.

Barry feels like he should be blushing, but his body maintains its deathly chill. It doesn’t mean he’s any less flustered though.

He keeps moving from her.

She whines loudly and follows the sound of him escaping. What started as the cub being bored out of his mind turns into a game of tag for the two.

It doesn’t stay confined to the bed for more than a few minutes.

Barry is the first to fall backwards off of the bed. He lands hard on the carpet, but doesn’t feel any pain. He looks up at the top of Selena’s head as it peeks over the edge of the at him.

The cub sits up and keeps sliding back. A pillow lands right where he had been, followed by the sound of two soft bunny feet hitting the ground.

“Get back here!”

“No!”

In the dark of the room, Barry tries his best to dodge the bunny’s attacks. As the game goes on, his eyes start to adjust to the dark.

He can see where she is, but she obviously can’t see him. He squints as hard as he can, trying to make his focus clearer.

Selena suddenly turns her eyes directly to him and jumps back in surprise.

“EEK!”

“What?”

“How are you doing that with your eyes?” she asks, calming down and moving closer to him. He doesn’t bolt from her this time, feeling genuinely curious about what she’s talking about.

She gets close enough and startles him with a tiny shove.

“Gotcha!”

“You little stinky!” Barry groans in defeat. Selena gives him her best evil laugh, enjoying the sweet sensation of victory. The cub smirks at her and accepts his demise. This one is much less painful than his last one.

“Seriously though, your eyes are glowing red,” she says as she starts to calm down. Barry blinks and tries to look around the room for something reflective to see himself in.

The metal walls aren’t shiny enough.

There happens to be a mirror in the connected bathroom, which Barry has to climb up to reach. This room must have been made for a larger mammal.

The sight of his own glowing orbs takes his breath away when he first sees them. Even with his limited night vision, his eyes are like two evil beads filling the area with a ghostly red light.

His shoulders slump in despair.

He looks like a monster.

No wonder the others don’t want to be around him. This is the first time he’s seen himself since he died, and he wishes he could go back to not knowing.

He looks dead. He normally soft and silky white fur is matted and sickly looking. The skin around his eyes and mouth is starting to turn a light blue color. His wounded arm never healed, he just has the same infected-looking bite in his skin and it continuously leaks a black ooze for some reason.

Barry closes his eyes and silently slides himself back down off the counter to rejoin his friend. When he reaches her, he doesn’t open his eyes. The downtrodden cub just sits down against the side of the bed and holds his face in his paws. He doesn’t like that she saw him. Even if she can’t see him, she must know how frightful he looks now.

He doesn’t want to see her look at him like that again. When she saw his red eyes, she looked so scared for that brief moment.

Barry takes a breath, even though he knows by now that he doesn’t really need the air. He had gone almost an hour without breathing at one point, purely by accident.

The cub jumps when he feels a soft paw on his head. He looks up at the bunny leaning close to him, a small smile written on her face.

“They’re cool,” she says as she looks into his glowing eyes. He looks back at her, unsure of himself.

“...What?”

“Your eyes. I like them. Red is my favorite color you know,” she says calmly. Barry tilts his head at her.

“Really? I thought it was orange. Or green.”

“Shush. It’s red now.”

The two sit in silence for a little while, listening to the sounds of the city that can still be heard through the wall. It sounds like there might be some sort of music being played at a neighboring residence. It wouldn’t surprise them; Gazelle’s neighbors might be just as dead as her, but they’re just as wealthy as they were when they were alive.

“Thank you…” Selena says to him in a tone he’d never thought he’d hear from her. She’s always so spunky and confrontational that hearing her softly coo is enough to concern him.

“For?”

She bops him on the head again, making sure he knows that it’s still her that he’s talking to.

“What do you think? Saving me! Everyone else jumped away when they saw the claws coming for me, but you jumped in…” she tells him. He can hear her shivering with anxiety brought on by the recent trauma. Strangely enough, he can smell her shift in mood.

She leans her head in closer to him, prompting the cub to lean his head back to keep her safe. She groans and reaches next to him, gripping the blanket and yanking it over his head.

Barry’s world goes dark in an instant and he almost shouts at her to back off. He doesn’t like being trapped or retrained, which his turning only made worse. He can’t see or move his head, and this scares him more than he would care to admit.

A sudden warmth presses itself into his cheek through the blanket. It stays there for a second before disappearing again.

Mwah

Barry blinks.

Did she kiss his cheek?

At first, he’s terrified for her. He never, ever wants her to go through what he had after being bitten. The look in her eyes as she watched him dying...never again.

But she kissed a blanket, not him.

That should be safe, right?

He hopes.

But at the same time, he nopes.

Why did she kiss him?!

Barry lets out a flustered yelp and jumps back up onto the bed, hiding away from the suddenly affectionate rabbit.

This isn’t the Selena he knows!

She has to be infected! Or sick with something else! His friend would never do something like that!

She follows him up onto the bed, and he suddenly notices how hurt she looks. She’s got an angry pout that she can’t even face him with. His new night vision lets him see the moisture gathering around the rims of her eyes.

He flinches and realizes that he hurt her feelings. The bunny doesn’t move to get closer to him this time. She keeps her distance and silently seethes by her lonesome.

Barry looks down, trying to think of something to make her feel better. Normally, he would just give her a hug or something similar. But as he is, he doesn’t want to take the risk.

But...if he’s not in direct contact…

The cub gathers a bunch of blankets from under him and wraps them around him like a coat. Before the bunny can pull away or stop him, Barry wraps her in a careful, blanketed hug. She squirms at first, not knowing what’s going on, but quickly accepts defeat and melts into the hug.

It’s not long before she starts crying. Barry doesn’t say anything to her as she does; it sounds like the kind of cry that she’s been needing to let out. Just an acceptance of emotions that have come to pass.

The cub stays with her for over an hour as she processes the events of the last day and comes to terms with her friend’s turning.

Eventually, the tears turn to whimpers and those turn into the occasional hiccup.

“Barry…?”

He looks down at the emotional rabbit. She looks so cute and vulnerable that he can hardly believe that she usually solves her problems with physical violence.

“Yeah?”

“If you ever die again, I’ll kill you.”

Nevermind, he can totally believe it.

*****

Judy trembles with excitement as she bolts around the room, trying to make sure every last window and door is locked. The newly replaced window, supposed to be a surprise for Nick when he eventually came back, is locked tight. The window in the bedroom is likewise secured, though it’s probably too small for a fox to climb through anyway.

If she had known about it when she was feral, she probably wouldn’t have hesitated to sneak through it.

Suddenly, her tall ears perk up.

Something is moving around inside his bathroom.

Is there a window in there, too?!

The bunny bolts forward as fast as she can, just managing to lock the door as the knob starts to turn. Why does he have a manual lock on the outside?

Her eyes dart around, trying to make sure that the door will hold. After the door is tested a few more times, Judy hears a dark chuckle echo out from inside the bathroom. The unnervingly deep and sinister voice sends a chill through her undead body.

It takes all of her self-control to keep from laughing out from what she thinks might be adrenaline. It does occur to her that when Nick was going through this, he had to worry about being attacked if he were to fail. Her reaction to having to defend against a familiar intruder is much different than his was.

But she can’t help how much fun she’s having.

She can’t believe that she’s playing this game, with Nick especially!

Judy thought he would hate her for what she almost did to him. Even if he didn’t end up holding anything against her for almost turning him, she most definitely holds it against herself.

Thanks to Nick, however, she’s able to look past it for a little while.

She puts her ear against the door, realizing that she can no longer hear anyone moving around inside the bathroom anymore. He’s on the move! The bunny leaps around, sniffing to see if she can get a hint of his scent to tip her off about his next plan.

Another noise draws her attention to the vents.

There’s...no way.

She could barely fit in there! How could he get into the air ducts? With his body, he’d more likely just get stuck in the entrance!

But the noises continue to distract her. She shuffles closer to the vent, trying to figure out just how he’s moving around in there.

She sniffs.

It...doesn’t smell like Nick.

Something forcefully slamming into the vent cover sends her flying backwards, a terrified shriek leaving her throat as she scrambles to find her footing. Her eyes fly back to the vent, expecting him to come out at any moment.

But he doesn’t. He just continues to bang against the cover.

Judy sneaks closer again, giving the vent a few more cautious sniffs.

Wait…

She knows this smell.

More exasperated than annoyed, Judy leans down to the cover and peeks through the metal grates. Just like she expected, she comes face to face with Corduroy, the foxy head giving her an innocent smile.

She groans, realizing that she’s been tricked, backstabbed and quite possibly bamboozled.

“How did you even get in there?” she sighs through the cover at her fox’s step-father in training.

“Oh, you know...I have my ways,” he answers cryptically. Judy lifts a brow, but an approaching shadow coming up from behind her catches her attention.

Corduroy smirks.

“Sorry, Judy booty!” he laughs. Judy’s eyes widen and she spins around just in time for a russet pair of fox arms to circle themselves around her. She’s plucked from the ground like a carrot from the dirt, a few different sounds of surprise flowing from her mouth.

She goes through multiple emotions as she’s hugged tightly to the chest of her...her fox. He’s laughing so loudly and happily that she can’t help but fall in with his joyous mirth. Before she can stop herself, she’s giggling like mad as she tries to squirm from his grasp.

Nick pretends to give her a few bites, but knows not to actually put his mouth on her. The bunny’s wide violet eyes take in the face of the tod she thought she had lost forever. He looks just like he did the day before.

He looks the same.

But she can tell he’s been through an ordeal without her.

He might be upset with her, but just being around her is such a relief to him that he can’t hold his emotions in. She accepts the affection while still playing along to their game, which looks to be over at this point.

How did he get in?

She’d only been trying for an hour or so!

How did he make it so long against her?

“Where did you-?!” she manages to choke through her squeaky laughter. The fox forces himself to calm down enough to answer her, having to use his shoulder to wipe away a few tears of laughter from his muzzle.

“Heh heh...eh-hem...heh...I...can pick a window lock, Carrots!” he chuckles, his eyes red from crying. Judy turns her head and looks past his arm, where the brand new window is now wide open. The cool evening breeze is flowing in, as do some sounds of the night mammals. The bunny’s jaw widens as she tries to process how he could have possibly gotten in without her knowing. She only had her back turned for a minute!

Just how stealthy is her fox…?

“Well, actually, I could pick any of the locks in here, but that wouldn’t have been fair!” Nick says with a warm smile. Judy pouts slightly, feeling outplayed by an opponent who failed to list his actual level of skill.

But he said he was even trying to play fair, so…

“You got Corduroy in on it, too?” Judy whines. Nick looks down the vent and nods.

“He said he wanted to try it out. Looks like he got the job done, huh?”

“But...what about the bathroom? How did you get from the bathroom to the fire escape so fast?”

Nick gives her one of his trademark smug grins. He casually carries her over to the bathroom door and unlocks it. After clicking the door open and looking inside, Judy is met with the sight of Nick’s mother sitting calmly on the toilet, waiting for someone to tell her it’s time to come out.

Marian turns her head and gives Judy an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, sweetie! Nick put me up to it!” she laughs. Judy nods, but is very much disturbed by the fact that the deep, rattling chuckle from earlier had actually come from the motherly vixen. It was so dark and dastardly…

Judy blushes slightly.

Is it okay to crush on her fox’s mother?

Maybe Corduroy wouldn’t mind sharing…

Judy is shaken awake by Nick, who is giving her a strange look.

“You okay there, Fluff?” he asks, a slightly knowing tone reaching his voice. The bunny nods faster than socially acceptable and tries to hide away the lingering heat in her cheeks.

“Oh! Judy, I almost forgot why I rushed back in here in the first place!” Nick pipes up as he carries his bunny over to the couch, where they had shared so many movies and accidental tail touches in the past.

Judy tilts her head.

“Huh? Wait, yeah. You said something about a vaccine being made somewhere?”

“Yep!” Nick nods as he sets her down.

“What about it?”

“It’s made out of night howlers,” her fox tells her, his eyes watching her reaction intently. Judy’s face falls and she suddenly considers the possibility that she’s being messed with again. It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing Nick would joke about though.

Before she can respond, he continues.

“And they’re being sourced from Bunnyburrow.”

Judy’s eyes go wide as a bolt of shock strikes her straight through her heart. Her nose twitches as her body gets ready for what he still has left to say. She already has an idea, but she needs to hear it out of Nick’s lip before her brain will accept it.

“From your family’s farm,” Nick concludes. It’s as blunt and simple a way he can tell her, but he knows that beating around the bush would only upset her more.

As soon as the words escape him, Judy is up and moving around.

She bolts around the room checking every table and flat surface. Nick, Corduroy and Marian watch her in confusion. This isn’t the reaction they thought she would have.

“...Uh, Carrots? What are you doing?”

Judy whips around to face him with tears streaming down her face.

“WHERE ARE YOUR CAR KEYS?!”


	24. Bite of Passage

After telling the tigers to go back without him, Nick is shoved forcefully into his own car. With his new job, he finally had a good enough reason to drive around in something besides Finnick’s van. It’s just an old grey sedan, but it’s big enough for him and gets him where he needs to go.

And apparently where he needs to go right now is headfirst into the passenger-side car seat.

The fox yelps and tries to scramble himself so that he’s sitting upright. Judy is in the driver's seat in an instant and the car’s engine roars to life.

Marian and Corduroy stay back at the apartment to watch over the place. It’s probably best that Nick and Judy handle this situation on their own anyway. There’s no telling what’s going to happen, and Nick doesn’t want to risk his blind mother getting lost or hurt.

Corduroy might be capable, but he’s still just a head. 

As they drive through the city streets, Nick is practically glued to the window. He’s barely been able to see what Zootopia has become, besides for the few roads he’s walked in while surrounded by family or tigers. His view from Gazelle’s house in the hills was nice, but the details were sorely missing.

Now, in the car with his bunny, he’s taking as much of it as he can. All in all, the undead are adapting to their new bodies well. A lot of them are able to live life in almost the same way they used to. And even the ones with missing limbs or entire bodies are making the most of it.

Nick also notices that they aren’t giddy like they had been when the apocalypse first happened. Almost all of the mammals he sees are down from the high that the infection originally brought them. They are much more neutral now and capable of scowling or arguing with each other. A fight breaks out at one point between the top halves of two different wolves who are trying to claim ownership over a single bottom half.

Nick tries not the stare at the scene taking place. He feels the urge to laugh, yell and run away all at the same time. The things the undead fight over…

The locations and businesses are still just as busy as ever. Though the salad bar locations seem rather empty, though. It saddens the fox to see this, since some of the locations used to be Judy’s favorites. He didn’t care for the food all that much, but went anyway just to make her happy.

Does Judy even like carrots anymore?

Will he have to stop calling her that?

Nick huffs, the nostalgia making his heart ache slightly. Even if things are relatively okay now, he still would much prefer the old world.

Another dark thought enters his mind.

Would Judy have said yes to him if she wasn’t dead? Turning into a zombie took away her options for having an actual family of her own. Would she have preferred that? If she only agreed to start a relationship with him because it was her last choice available, he doesn’t know if he’d be okay with it.

The two never actually talked about their opinions on wanting kits or not. It’s not the kind of thing they would have normally discussed. She seemed like the kind of mammal who would be married to her job for life, but Nick doesn’t want to assume.

If she had wanted kits but can’t now, it would break the fox’s heart.

He knows that he would have never been able to give them to her, even if she had wanted to be with him.

Nick looks over at his bunny, who is uncharacteristically silent as they drive. She has an eerily determined look on her face. She doesn’t look back at him. Her ears are both tucked back against her head and her eyes are staring straight forward.

She has tunnel vision.

Nick knows the look.

He can tell that she’s not in the best state of mind right now. After not hearing from her family for weeks, she’s suddenly told that they may be right where they’ve always been.

At least she’s able to drive like-

Nick screams out loud as he sees a very familiar undead sloth slowly stomp his way out into the middle of the road, his furious eyes focused directly on Nick. He is covered with leaves and twigs, probably from his trip down the hill. The fox braces himself for the sudden slamming of brakes, but it doesn’t happen.

Flash bares his teeth at Nick and tries to open his mouth to say something, but his eyes widen as he sees that the bunny driver isn’t paying attention.

“...OHHH...SSSHHHII-!”

WHAM

Nick yelps and ducks down as he feels his car impact the sloth and dent slightly. Flash’s face, still morphing itself into surprise, is visible for only a moment before he’s pinged off of the vehicle and sent flying right into oncoming traffic.

Nick cringes over and over as he watches the sloth bounced off multiple cars, not being allowed to hit the ground. Judy doesn’t even react to the impromptu game of volleyball happening in her rear view mirror.

Nick looks back and sees Flash fly through someone’s window just as he vanishes behind the horizon.

The fox gulps and slowly turns his head back to Judy, who is still just as focused on reaching her destination as before.

Does she even know she hit someone? It’s a good thing she hit this mammal, but what if it had been that family of wolves again?

Nick doubts that she would ever forgive herself.

“Carrots?”

Not even a twitch of her ear.

“Hey, Fluff!” he tries again.

Still no answer, though her nose does twitch a few times.

“...Judy…?” he asks in his most vulnerable sounding voice. She’s starting to scare him and he can’t keep his anxiety hidden anymore.

The rabbit finally blinks.

Her consciousness snaps back to reality and she is suddenly sitting next to her fox, and he’s giving her a very concerned look.

“What?”

“...You’re going too fast…” he mutters as he secures his grip to the seat around him. Judy looks down and sees that she’s been doing over twice the speed limit. Not only that, but there’s a big dent in the car’s hood that hadn’t been there before.

Her eyes widen and her little bunny foot finally relaxes itself off of the accelerator.

The car slows back down to a more reasonable speed.

“...You’re lucky I’m not on duty, Judy. Or I might have given you a ticket for that…” Nick tries to joke, but his heart is racing too fast for him to sound at all mirthful.

“Are you okay? Did I hit something?” she asks with a panicked urgency in her voice.

“Something? Uh, no, you don’t,” he explains cryptically. She sighs in relief and takes on a more natural driving posture. Only then does Nick allow his claws to slide back out of the seat.

“Sorry, Nick, this is just...mm…a lot to take in,” she says to him. “I was so sure my family must have gone somewhere else in a hurry to escape the infection...to hear that they’ve been home the whole time without calling me...is…”

“...Yeah, I know. Sorry for springing it on you like that. Probably should have been a little more tactful about the way I spilled the beans,” Nick sighs as he scratches his head.

Judy clicks her tongue but gives him an uncertain nod. He can tell that she agrees but doesn’t want to make him feel bad about it.

“I’m just nervous about what I’ll find when we get there…” Judy mumbles, her focus starting to close in on the road ahead of her again.

“I know the feeling.”

Judy blinks and gives her fox a glance.

“You do?”

Nick nods and leans his car seat back into a comfortable position for the trip. He knows that Bunnyburrow is at least a few hours out of Zootopia, and that’s if there’s no roadblocks or checkpoints on the way.

“When we were walking back to the apartment, I was terrified. I had no idea if you had already left me or not…” he explains in a dark tone. She gives him another sympathetic look.

“I wasn’t going to…”

“You offered to move out when I got there,” Nick reminds her with a small bit of pain in his voice. The memory of how she said that to him will probably linger.

“Oh...yeah…”

The car goes quiet as it zooms into the tunnel that leads out of Zootopia. Nick has only been through it a few times before, having lived almost the entirety of his life confined to the city. It’s his home and livelihood so there’s never really a reason for him to leave.

The inside of the car is bathed in both darkness and an unsettling orange glow from the tunnel lights. Neither of them say anything for the entire time they’re under the water. Other vehicles of all shapes and sizes pass them, and Nick notes that all of the drivers he can see are dead.

Not that it’s surprising, but he had a tiny shred of hope…

The instant that the light overtakes then again and they exit the city for real, Judy speaks up.

“I’m sorry.”

Nick flinches at the sudden sound. The tod turns his head to his bunny and gives her a confused head tilt.

“Hm?”

“I said I’m sorry. For the way I’ve been acting...ever since you said you wanted me to bite you, I’ve just been losing it…” she tries to explain. Nick sits back against the seat and listens without interrupting. He can tell that the bunny is doing a lot to bare her soul for him.

“And then when you disappeared, I actually went crazy. I scared and hurt some mammals...then ended up both leading a pack of wolves to you and then leaving you alone to fight them off...not to mention almost biting you!” Judy gets louder as she goes, her voice starting to tremble. Nick looks at her, trying to process just how much guilt she’s putting herself through.

“I’m a bad rabbit and a worse girlfriend,” she finally declares. Nick’s ears flick up at these words and he snaps his head in her direction.

“Carrots…”

“Just let me...just...I need to say this. Nick, I’m sorry that I’ve been putting you in so much danger. As long as I’ve been in my right mind, I’ve never wanted to hurt you. But because I act without thinking, I ended up almost losing you. I actually got a kit turned! I know it’s only been a few days, so...so if you want to change your mind about…us...I wouldn’t blame you. I won’t try to keep you to myself and I won’t make you stay with me against your will. If you would rather go back to the survivor camp...and find a nice vixen there to be with...I’d understand completely…”

By the time she chokes out the last bit, she has tears streaming down her face. Nick knows she’s falling apart inside despite her mask of maturity she’s attempting to wear for him.

But he’s Nick Wilde.

Seeing through masks is pretty much his superpower.

Before Judy can blind herself with her own tears and send them careening off of a cliff, Nick reaches over and places his paw on her head. To his surprise, she feels warmer than last time. Was she this warm when he grabbed her earlier?

With a comforting smile, Nick places two of his fingers against his lips. Giving them a kiss, he then slides the paw over and places the kissed fingers on her cheek.

Judy freezes up and slams her foot down into the accelerator.

Nick slams back against his seat as the car’s speed begins picking up at a terrifying rate. Judy looks between her fox and the road, trying to wake herself back up from her dream.

“JUDY!” Nick yells out as loud as he can. His voice snaps her back out of her funk and allows her to remove her foot on the accelerator...once again.

Nick sees that she’s letting the car slow down and sighs in relief.

“Stoooop doing that!” he scolds, having to once again remove his claws from the lining of his car seat. Judy smiles bashfully at him but doesn’t answer him verbally. Instead, she just gives him a half-lidded glimpse every few seconds. Nick can’t tell exactly what the look she’s giving him is supposed to be…

But his tail seems to.

It fluffs up to his side and he’s powerless to stop it. Judy tries to keep her eyes on the road, but quickly notices how flustered he is and her face lights up. Nick goes from being shy and nervous to grumpy and embarrassed in an instant.

“AWWWWWWWEEEE!” she squeals, her voice filling the inside of the car and his head with its high-pitched whine. The fox pulls his tail to his chest and tries his best to smooth it back down.

It’s a futile effort.

No matter how much he slides his paws down it, the lingering image of Judy’s smoldering gaze keeps something inside him burning brightly.

And he has no idea if he likes what it’s doing to his brain.

It’s like Judy just infected him with her own special variant of disease that’s taking him over and pulling the controls out from under him.

The fox shivers in nervous delight, no longer caring that his tail is three times it’s normal size.

Nick looks out the window for the first time in awhile and finally sees that the traffic around them is much thinner than it was in the city. All around them, the buildings become more sparse until he can only spot the occasional structure looming around the countryside.

A sense of calm washes through him and a tension he didn’t know he had been holding escapes for the first time in...ever?

It’s like something in his mind just switched from defensive to passive.

He doesn’t need to always be on top of things around here, does he? There’s no hustle, no crime, nothing for him to take care of while wearing his mask of professionalism. Out here, in the lush fields of green, it feels like it’s just him and his bunny.

Outside the city, everything seems so fresh and alive. He can still spot the occasional undead farmer working on their crops, but they seem so in their element that nothing looks out of the ordinary.

Is this what he’s been missing the whole time?

A lifetime in a city with constant noise, constant movement and a never-ending sense of urgency...why couldn’t he have been born and raised in the country?

Judy notices him staring out the window like he’s seeing another planet for the first time.

“You okay there, Slick? You’re fogging up your side of the windshield,” she jokes lightly. Nick’s ears flick lazily in her direction and it takes a few moments for him to process that she had said something to him.

“Huh? Oh...yeah, just enjoying the scenery,” he says in a more sincere tone than she’s used to him using. She quirks her brow at him, noticing that his tail wags a bit more whenever they pass a farm or a body of water. Judy never really thought about all the things that Nick has probably never gotten to see before, being a city fox his entire life.

“...You know, you could have gone with me any of the times I went home for a holiday,” Judy says to him. Nick blinks awake again and turns his head to face her. A look of deep contemplation crosses his features as he tries to imagine what could have been if he hadn’t been so nervous about leaving. She had asked him multiple times in the past to come with her, but...he just never could bring himself to say yes.

Part of it was the idea of being around swarms of bunnies.

Part of it was being in an unfamiliar place with no advantages for him to use.

And the biggest part of it was...he wanted to wait until he actually managed to ask her out. It might have been a selfish way of trying to motivate himself, but what would it look like to her parents if she just randomly showed up with a fox that was ‘just a friend’?

Maybe they’d be fine with him.

Or, judging from the fox repellent they sent her to Zootopia with, they would most likely hate him. Who sends their daughter to a city with something that will automatically label her as an outsider? If she wanted pepper spray, they could have gotten the same exact thing with a different label for half the price.

Bunnyburrow general stores must be predatory as hell.

Nick looks around again at the rolling hills of thriving life and slumps into his car seat.

All of this could have been home if he had accepted one of her previous invites. But would Judy ever consider moving back out of the city she dreamed of living in since she was a kit?

The fox seriously doubts it.

“Yeah…” is his only reply.

Judy can feel his soured mood.

She knows it’s a good thing that they’re almost there. The bunny doesn’t know how much longer she can sit in one place before she has to get out to move her legs. Suddenly, Nick’s urgency to get out of his apartment the other day makes more sense. She thought it was just him being reckless, but just being in one place for a few hours, even though she can actively see the land moving by, is maddening for her.

How did Nick manage to last over two weeks?

“Hey…” Nick says suddenly. Judy’s ears perk up and she glances between him and the road.

“Yeah?”

“I’m not mad at you. You said sorry before, and I forgive you,” Nick says calmly, his eyes focused right on her. Most of the weight evaporates right off of the bunny’s shoulders as she hears these words. Though she still feels guilty about the cub being bitten…

“Thanks…” she replies with a slight tremble in her voice.

“I mean...making mistakes doesn’t make us bad mammals. I make mistakes and you make mistakes. We’re both full of mistakes.”

Judy suddenly gets the feeling she’s being had.

“Uh-huh…” she says suspiciously.

“And hey, glass half-full, that means we both have a lot in common!”

“Nick.”

“So the more we try to understand one another…”

“NICK.”

“I think...the more exceptional we’ll both become!”

“NICHOLAS WILDE. YOU SAY ONE MORE-”

“So we have to try!”

“OHHHHH MYYYYYYY GAAAAAWWWWD!” Judy wails, her screams of agony drowning at the uproarious laughter of the fox she both loves and wants to murder.

“Hey, what’s that?” he says, his laughter cutting off unnaturally fast. Judy stops trying to burn a hole through his head with her imaginary lazer vision and turns just in time to see what should be her family’s farm.

Instead, what she’s greeted by is the sight of a massive wooden wall surrounding the entirety of her family’s property. She has to slam on the breaks when she notices that she’s driving right at it with no initial intention of slowing down.

Nick is sent flying into the dashboard, which is pretty much a pastime when at the mercy of his bunny’s poor driving skills. Once the car comes to a screeching halt, the fox lifts himself back up and groans in familiar pain.

“Do you ALWAYS have to end trips by doing that? I think I’m starting to forget who you even are at this point,” he complains. Judy doesn’t answer. She’s already out the door and racing towards the wall.

Nick sighs and reluctantly follows her...after locking the car back up so it doesn’t get spirited away by some lucky opportunist who happens to be passing by.

When Nick catches back up to his bunny, he notices just how clean everything smells. The city air, having filled his lungs since birth, is forced out by the country smell of soil and plant life.

Judy is standing at a massive gate that is positioned right where her family’s driveway should be. Nick watches her go through a variety of emotions before settling on a mixture of panic and frustration.

This results in her slamming her fist into the heavy wooden structure.

It holds, which is a bit surprising to Nick. After taking out a crowd of superpowered tigers, he thought that she might actually be some sort of super strong bunny goddess or something.

“HEY!” she screams at the wall.

Something can be heard scrambling around behind it. Nick and Judy track the sounds of movement as they progress further up the wall, until they reach the top and go quiet.

Nick looks up just as two tiny bunny noses peek over the top of the wall.

His ears perk up and he tilts his head.

The bunnies repeat his gesture.

“Uh...HALT! WHO GOES THERE?!” one of the bunnies shouts down at the two. Judy, just noticing her two new spectators, takes a few steps back so that she can see them. As soon as she takes in the faces of the two strange rabbits, her eyes shoot wide open and a tiny whimper escapes her.

“J-Jennette! Miranda! Oh my god...IT’S ME! JUDY!” she wails up at the two, her voice overwhelmed with emotion. These are just two of her little bunny siblings that she thought she would never see again. Seeing them just casually watching her from the top of a wall fries her mind and sends her into hysterics.

The two kits gasp and disappear. Nick can hear them running down the same way they came, presumably to find the adults and tell them the news.

Nick noticed something the moment he saw the kits.

And by the sound of Judy’s whimpering, she noticed it, too.

The kits are alive.

And if they’re alive, then…

The rest of her family must be, too.


	25. Back From the Dead

“What’s wrong, Barry? You have not even touched your fish!”

Bianca looks worriedly down at the polar bear cub in question, his posture slumped and his cheek resting lazily on his paw. The youngster might be sitting right next to her at the table meant for all the undead residing in the mansion, but inside, she can tell that he’s far away. His eyes aren’t focused on anything in particular and he hasn’t remembered to breathe in ages.

He pokes at his plate of raw fish a few more times with his fork.

It’s not much different than what he would have eaten before the end of the old world. The fish being served is actually his favorite kind, but he just can’t bring himself to put anything in his mouth right now. There’s such a lack of physical hunger that it’s disturbing him. His body doesn’t really need the food much anymore...does it?

Is food like air? Just taken in for the hell of it?

He doesn’t know for sure. It seems that the longer he spends in his new body, the more he doesn’t know about it. There are the occasional gurgles and muscle spasms that he wouldn’t expect to happen inside of what is supposed to be an animated corpse.

But then again, he was never a fan of horror movies. He doesn’t know what’s supposed to be happening to him as he adjusts to the changes.

Selena is more into those movies, but she’s being forced to sit at the living kits table.

And without her sitting next to him, Barry feels lost.

The cub is jolted back down to earth as a white paw wraps around his shoulders and pulls him into the side of a familiar arctic vixen.

He looks up at the softly smiling face of his current caretaker. She’s just as kind to him as she is to everyone else. Barry knows that being turned has changed the way a lot of the others behave around him...but not Bianca or her mate.

The fennec in particular is surprisingly protective over him. When any of the adults do or say anything to make the cub feel shut out or distrusted, Finnick is there in an instant, ready to feed them the business end of his mysteriously-appearing bat.

Barry had figured out not to question the bat.

It just is.

Doesn’t matter where it was.

But just because the others don’t do anything in front of him anymore doesn’t mean they suddenly like him again. Thanks to the twitchy nature of the adults, the kits are quickly picking up on the fact that they are supposed to be afraid of Barry. The young ones are always impressionable when it comes to learning who to hate.

This is getting Selena into trouble a lot, as she has taken to beating the crap out of any of the kits who badmouth Barry in front of her. Thanks to the blood on her paws, she’s being kept at the very end of the dinner table, separated from everyone else.

She’s in the same boat as Barry, it seems.

So why can’t they just sit together?

It would improve their mood so much.

But again, adults will be adults and will make decisions based on what they think they know about the mammals around them. In their struggle to protect their own, they will climb over everyone else around them until there’s no one left.

Barry sighs and looks back down at his fish. It’s dead and gets to stay dead.

Lucky.

With a few quick bites, the fish is gone and he’s finished with his dinner. Bianca blinks at how quickly he was able to gobble down such a large chunk. With Gazelle’s spending habits, everyone is pretty much guaranteed to be full by the end of every meal.

The cub wonders why she bothers giving so much food to the undead.

Wouldn’t the food be better served to feed the living? Or is fish easy enough to get that Gazelle really doesn’t mind paying for it all?

Barry looks around at the numerous zombies sitting at the table with him. Out of everyone in the mansion, he sees that he’s the only cub. All the others at the table with him are adults of multiple species, most of them larger. This leaves Barry an outcast from both the living and the dead. But it’s not like he fit in all that well earlier, either.

Being as big as he is for a cub, he could tell that he intimidated the smaller kits even when he was alive. Now that he’s dead, he’s basically just a monster to them. The only one who ever really stayed around him is Selena, and she is stuck at the t-

Barry blinks at the empty spot at the living kits table left by his best friend.

Where did…?

A crunch to his right startles him into dropping his fork, which clatters loudly onto his empty plate. The other undead mammals turn their heads towards the sound and are confused by the sight they’re met with.

Right next to the newest cub to join them at the table is a living rabbit kit. The few who had been around Barry before he turned also know that he hung around the bunny a lot, but that doesn’t explain why she wandered from her table with the other living kits just to eat her greens.

Shouldn’t she be more careful around him?

Even if they’re friends, he can still get her sick.

Who’s supposed to be watching her?

“What?” she spits at the mammals staring at her, daring them to tell her to leave. The undead workers look at each other, give a collective shrug and return to their plates.

“Selena, sweetie…” Bianca sighs, scooting herself around to face the bunny. Selena flinches and returns the look from one of the only adults she respects in the mansion. She might not care what the others say to her, but Bianca’s word carries much more weight, being one of the two mammals who rushed to Barry’s aid when he was bitten.

“You know you can’t sit here...Gazelle made it very clear that we have to eat at separate tables. We know that you and Barry are good friends, but…” Bianca tries to explain as gently as she can. The hurt look on the bunny’s face is doing nothing to help her do her job as a caretaker.

“They don’t want me over there, anyway. It’s just while we eat!” Selena argues, abandoning her sorrowful expression for a more demanding one.

“Yes, you’re right. It’s just while we eat. You and Barry can play later, but-”

“That doesn’t make any sense! Why can’t I sit next to him if I’m going to be next to him later anyway? What, are you going to try to tell me that I can’t play with him next?!” Selena is getting loud now, drawing the attention of even the tables filled with the living mammals from all the way across the room. Bianca is conflicted on how to act; she knows she should put her paw down and tell the bunny kit what’s what, but it’s difficult when the bunny has an actual point.

What can she say? Why does Selena have to sit apart if they’re just going to be together later?

“Listen, kit,” Finnick’s voice speaks up from Bianca’s other side, the fennec leaning back so that Selena can see him. “When we eat, we have our mouths open a lot more than normal. There’s a lot more chance of something flying out onto your food or into your mouth when we’re talking. So just for now, while we’re eating, you’re going to have to sit over there, alright? It’s just so you don’t get infected.”

Bianca shoots her mate a thankful glance, to which he responds with a knowing smirk.

Apparently leveling with the youngsters is better than simply demanding that they listen to your words, even if they don’t understand them. Just by putting in the extra effort into making them understand you instead of fear your wrath, you can-

“Well, what if I want to get infected?” Selena hisses darkly, shooting the fennec a glare that actually makes him swallow his mouthful of fish wrong. Finnick starts coughing into his napkin, making absolutely sure not to send any spittle flying in the bunny’s direction.

The undead mammals at the table, at least the ones in earshot, hear those words and decide that it’s the perfect time to pick up their plates and get back to work. Within seconds, the part of the table around Selena is cleared of its occupants.

Barry is frozen stiff, still trying to process her words.

Bianca is giving the daring bunny a look of pure horror.

Finnick continues to cough.

“You...you don’t...mean that!” Finnick says loudly once he’s able to form some words again. Selena narrows her gaze, trying to hide the moisture that’s forming in them.

“YES! I! DO!” she screams back. Barry looks down at her, not knowing what to say to his best friend in the whole world. Didn’t she see what he went through for her? Doesn’t she understand what he gave up so that she could live on? Does his death mean so little…?

“Selena! Stop this! After all of this, with all the mammals you’ve seen dying around you, how could you treat your life as if it is worthless?! The whole point of this place is to preserve the life that is left!” Bianca says with a voice she didn’t know she had.

“Well, what about Nick?! He said he wants to turn so that he can be with Judy!” Selena argues right back to her face. Bianca has some of the wind knocked out of her sails when she recalls her brother-in-law’s situation. Finnick bangs his head on the table multiple times, his groaning being overwhelmed by the sounds of the silverware rattling against the plates.

“Are you kidding me? He said that crap around you?!” Finnick complains as he digs his face into his paws in frustration. Bianca loses her will to fight and goes quiet.

“Selena, that’s...those two are actually together! Like, as in a relationship! There are things that mammals want to do in relationships that drive them crazy if they can’t!” Finnick tries to shoot back, but the bunny is having none of it.

“Like what?! Kissing?! I’ve already kissed Barry! See, watch, I’ll do it again!” she squeals as she jumps up onto the wooden seat and leans her face towards the polar bear cub. Barry jolts himself awake when he sees her little lips flying straight for his cheek. With a surprising amount of speed, he throws himself back away from the table, away from her kissy face.

There’s no blanket this time!

She could have actually infected herself just now!

Barry’s mind is assaulted with thoughts of watching her succumb to the same fate that he had to go through, including the chunky vomiting and the wails of pain.

He snaps.

It starts as a single stressed whine, but it quickly escalates into inconsolable sobbing. He reaches up and digs his claws into his scalp and lets out a pained shriek that has everyone in the dining area rushing to cover their ears. Even Selena has to fold hers down against her head to avoid getting tinnitus.

He doesn’t know how he’s screaming so loud, but he doesn’t care.

His bunny almost infected herself using him and inside his head, a storm of emotions is raging. As much as he wants to be around her, he can’t allow himself to do so if she’s just going to keep endangering herself. It might actually kill him to watch her die.

He’d rather do through the process of dying a billion more times than watch her suffer through it.

Selena is giving him a shocked expression, her large eyes locked with his glowing red orbs. Barry knows that his body is doing weird things again, and that’s only making it worse. He really doesn’t belong around anyone, does he?

Without another word, the cub turns and runs right through the freshly-installed new front door. Luckily, it is open anyway so he causes no further damage to the house. His tears blind him as he runs out of the mansion and over the grass. Even in his distraught state of mind, he remembers to mind the freshly patched fences, instead choosing to climb them. He probably could just pass right through them with this new body.

After climbing over the third and final fence, he slows down and squats down near the pathway leading to the road. It’s always been his favorite area of the property. It’s not as nice as, say, Icy Lake in Tundratown, but the greenery holds its own charm.

Barry takes a moment to try to clear his head of the thoughts raging inside.

Will he have to stop being friends with Selena now?

If they make it so she can’t be around him, what will he do?

...Why is he even there anymore? He’s not a survivor and he’s not really helping. As it is, he’s just a frayed thread still attached to the cloth, needing to be snipped off.

Maybe he should just...walk away.

Can he possibly find his parents again? What if they’d come to their senses and are looking for him? Now that he’s just as dead as they are, he can rejoin his family.

Selena would be sad, but at least she’d be safer.

She only makes her worst decisions when it comes to him. Without him there, she’d probably fall back into a more neutral attitude and would actually listen to what the adults are telling her.

“Psst!”

Barry flinches and looks up.

There’s no one there. Just a bunch of grass, the pathway and some sort of stick to his side.

“Hey! Up here!”

Barry blinks and follows the voice all the way up the stick until he’s looking into the face of the same Alpha wolf who led the charge on the mansion…

The same charge that ended up killing him.

“Hey cub! Mind getting me down from here? I can do head st-...wait, no. Too young. Um...how about this? Get me down and I’ll give you a nice place to stay! My pack’s got a ton of properties under our control! Just take me off this damn stake, bring me back and I’ll-”

“I will crush you.”

“...What?”

The wolf feels fear rushing through her mind as she looks down into the blazing red eyes of the cub. A snarl curls his lips as his paws reach out and grab her mount.

She can hear the wooden stake splintering in his grasp.

The Alpha swallows, sending some spit leaking down her neck stump and back out onto the lawn.

Maybe assaulting this particular stronghold wasn’t her brightest idea ever…

*****

Stu Hopps is a busy rabbit.

Between managing his farm, making sure the defensive walls are holding and keeping an eye on his hundreds of family members being kept safe on the property, he doesn’t have more than a few minutes to himself each day.

Bonnie does her part in managing the house, since they are way over the capacity they were meant to be hosting.

At least the current, and only, crop he’s having to make is a hardy plant. But with it everywhere, this forces him to take extreme caution while working. He has to wear a protective suit while tending to the flowers, given their toxic nature.

But the animals outside the walls are paying top dollar for them, so he has no real choice.

The Hopps family has taken in about five times its annual profit...in just the last month.

Stu might be overworked, but he doesn’t mind it. The constant workload helps keep his mind off the outside world and all that’s happening in it. The world ended almost a month ago and it seems like it’s been years already.

Not to mention it keeps his mind off the only child in the Hopps family that didn’t make it…

Stu stumbles against the wall as his lost daughter’s face flashes through his mind again. He curses as his emotions start shutting him down once again. His paws rush to his eyes to stop the flow of fresh tears.

The last thing he saw of his daughter was the ZNN coverage of the first day of the outbreak. Not having expected such an immediate level of violence, the camera crew had accidentally captured a number of mammals getting torn apart by the first wave of infected to hit the city.

And among the ones being mauled was…

“JUDY!” comes the squeaky voices of his two daughters. Stu gives a short hop backwards at the sudden shrill noise, not having heard anyone approaching him. He is quick to wipe his tears off on his shoulder to keep his younger daughters from seeing.

“W-well, if it isn’t my two little watchguards! Now, then, what did you see?” he asks, trying to recall their opening statement. The two look out of breath, like they’d just run all the way down from the top of the wall.

Stu’s ears flatten as he considers the possibility of a breach.

“JUDY!” Miranda screams.

“-IS AT!” Jannette continues.

“THE GATE!” the finish at the same time.

Stu feels a bolt of pain shoot through his chest, which is followed by an irritated sense of disappointment in his girls.

“Why would you joke about something like that?” he grumbles, turning his head to hide the resurgence of tears. He thought he taught them better than to say things just to hurt others.

The sisters each reach up and grab one of his ears, yanking him down to their level. He lets out a confused yelp and looks back to them, not having any other choice.

“DAD! LISTEN TO US!” one of them yells, but Stu is too discombobulated to tell which.

“WE’RE NOT LYING! JUDY IS HERE! WITH A FOX!” the other sister screams into his face.

“OKAY! Alright, just let go of my ears!” he pleads. The sisters give him a small glare before letting him go. Seems that being falsely accused of something so cruel didn’t sit well with either of them.

They grab his paws and tug him in the direction of the door.

He does his best to keep pace with them, though his heavy work gear slows him down considerably. He stumbles a few times, but his daughter’s surprising strength keeps him from slipping. He passes through the many tunnels in the burrow, almost all of them bustling with activity from the extended Hopps family’s occupation.

Oh, he sees that the bathroom wing has lines again.

He’ll have to build some more bathrooms now, on top of everything else.

He is pulled along without his mind actually processing just what his daughters want to show him.

It isn’t until his daughters undo the lock to the gate and swing it open for him that he finally understands what’s being shown to him.

As the heavy wood is pulled back and the outside world is revealed to him, his eyes flash across the form of someone he thought he’d never see again.

Judy is standing there.

She’s crying just as much as he is.

He’s crying?

Everything is blurry.

Where is the ground?

Oh, here it is.

Hello, ground.

THUMP

Stu slumps backwards onto the dirt, a cloud of dust flying up around him as he lands. Judy runs over to her father to make sure that he’s okay.

Nick peeks in, making sure that he won’t be immediately assaulted with pepper spray.

The first thing that he sees is one of the watchguard siblings passing a twenty dollar note to her sister. The losing sister grumbles while the victorious sister does a little dance, seemingly oblivious to the fact that her older sister has come back from the dead.

Nick looks past the group in front of him and sees a residence built right in the ground with multitudes of other rabbits hurrying around doing...stuff.

Yep, this is Bunnyburrow, all right.

Maybe that welcome sign wasn’t a joke...


	26. Eating the Parents

“Moooooooom, Dad passed out again!”

Bonnie Hopps sighs and looks up from the counter full of chopped vegetables. Chunks of every color litter the surface around her, the matron having spent the last hour just slicing the ingredients for the night’s stew. It’s a daily task but an important one, if she hopes to keep up with feeding her hundreds of family members.

“Did you try what I told you?” Bonnie calls back to her daughter. She hears a momentary grunt of effort, followed by a meaty thud.

A few moments of silence.

“It’s not working!” Miranda yells. The mother rabbit groans and places her tools down to go figure out what’s wrong with her husband this time. Normally he just overworks himself and forgets to hydrate. She just hopes that he didn’t get the flower on himself again.

She’s running low on antidote.

With a quick wipe of her paws on her apron, she hops down from the counter and makes her wake through the kitchen and towards the hallway. Already, she can feel the much cooler air blowing in front the wind tunnel-like corridor that runs through the entire burrow. The kitchen is one of the more furnished rooms, but it retains much more heat.

She doesn’t expect what meets her when she turns the corner. 

Instead of just seeing her small daughter and passed-out spouse, she comes face to face with one of her elder daughters.

A wave of emotions rolls over her before she can prepare herself and in a moment, she has her back to the wall and is on her knees. The world around her swirls as tears blur her vision and distort the softly smiling face of her late daughter.

“N-no...you...J-Judy…?” she squeaks. The undead bunny in question nods gently and crouches down to level with her mother.

Judy is just so relieved to see that they’re all okay. As far as she can see, she might be the only one of the entire extended Hopps family to be infected.

“Hey, mom…” Judy says through an intense trembling in her voice. Her mother tries to leap forward to hug her, but the younger bunny easily holds her back.

Bonnie gives her daughter a hurt and confused look.

“Careful, mom. I’m infected, okay? Soft hugs only,” Judy instructs. Bonnie’s eyes widen, but she manages a tiny nod. Judy returns the nod and leans closer to her mother. She feels a soft pair of arms encircle her and latch shut.

Bonnie wants to squeeze the life out of her so badly. Nothing else is going through her mind besides for the fact that her daughter is back and the world is finally throwing them a bone.

Judy hugs her mother as carefully as she can, making sure to keep every part of her away from the older bunny’s face.

Nick stands in the doorway, watching the heartwarming exchange with a tiny smile on his face. He doesn’t miss the irony of how Judy is the only one infected in her family, while he is the only one alive in his.

In the Hopps residence, he’s finally in the majority. It’s definitely a strange feeling. Even before the world died, he was always a minority citizen.

Miranda and Jannette wander off down the hallway, seemingly in a hurry to get somewhere. Apparently there’s something more interesting than their sister coming back as a zombie.

“You two busy?” he calls curiously. They stop at a random door and slam themselves into it multiple times.

Nick blinks at the random display.

Couldn’t just knock?

The door opens and two more bunnies peek out, this time two young bucks.

“Nathan! Noah! Come on! We have to get started! I want to practice that spaghetti pool thing first!” Miranda squeaks at them. The bucks follow them out the door and out of the hallway, ignoring Nick completely.

The fox notices that the one buck is slightly chubby and is strangely missing his shirt.

What an...interesting family.

As the kits hurry off to who knows where, Nick turns back to his bunny and her mother cuddling on the floor. Nick knows the feeling of relief. Once he realized he could still see his mother, and she got her mind back, he felt like the world was a little less lost.

“GAH!” Bonnie yelps as she peeks her eye up at the form of the taller canine. She pulls Judy back as she slides backwards into the kitchen, the undead bunny letting herself be pulled out of pure childish obedience.

Nick groans and rubs his eyes.

Guess it’s this again.

World ends and he’s still just a shifty fox.

Probably shouldn’t have hoped for anything else from the mother who gave her daughter a brightly colored, offensive can of-

“Oh! Are you Nicholas?”

Nick blinks.

What was that?

“Sorry, you startled me! Could barely see you!”

Nick inhales like he’s going to answer but nothing comes out.

“Nice to see you’re finally taking her up on her offer to bring you down! I guess it only took the world ending, huh?” the kindly rabbit says through a few hiccups. Her face is still stained by tears, but there’s a wide smile etched across it.

“Uhhh…” is the only thing he can think to answer her with.

“Well, the stew isn’t done yet, but the pies should be! I don’t normally let the little ones have their desert before they’ve had their dinner, but...I think this is as good a time as any to break some rules!”

Nick’s ears perk up at the mention of the ‘P’ word.

There’s no way.

It’s only a myth!

He folds his ears back down as a shrill whistle fills the air. The fox looks to Judy’s mother, who has an eerily innocent look on her face as she stares directly into his soul.

“You might want to move, Nick.”

Something about the foreboding tone of her voice spooks poor Nick into spinning around in place. A rumble, distant at first but quickly growing, is felt more than heard. The vibrations reaching up through his paws shake him to his very core. Nick scans the hallways nervously, feeling like he should be running instead of staying.

His legs are trembling too much to move.

Then he sees it.

From around the corner of the hallway, there are bunnies.

Bunnies happen.

Hundreds, no...millions of bunnies rush to fill every inch of space in the hallway as they charge forward in what Nick can only describe as an actual wave of lagomorph madness. The screams and shouts from the countless rabbits of white, brown, grey and black fill his ears and fry his brain to the point where it finally gets the hint that if he doesn’t move, he will die.

His legs are carrying him backwards towards the kitchen, but he barely has a second to escape before he’s overtaken by the rush of flowing kits. He’s on the ground in an instant, thousands of soft little bunny feet stomping over him like fluffy little bullets.

If they weren’t so cushioned and light, he might have literally died.

The stampede continues for maybe thirty seconds, but to Nick it feels like an eternity. At one point he tries to call for help, but his mouth is instantly filled with dirty bunny feet. A few louder screeches come from the ones who realize that they’ve stepped in something wet, but they are gone quickly enough that they don’t mind it for more than that one moment.

Luckily, nobody manages to cut themselves on his teeth.

At least, he thinks so.

He tastes a slight coppery sensation on his tongue, but that’s properly just his mushed up insides leaking out. Nothing to worry about, obviously.

Finally, after an era of being stepped on, the bunnies thin out and the flow slows to a trickle. The remaining few bunnies have enough space to see the immobile fox coming and are able to walk around him calmly. It seems the bunnies at the back of the diner crowd are the older ones, as they are closer to Judy’s size and are able to control themselves. They prefer to travel in their solid state as opposed to reverting to the liquid form that their younger siblings seem to have mastered.

Nick groans painfully, afraid of the sight he’ll see if he dares open his eyes. Will his blood be gone? Where are his legs? Is he going to live as a pile of mashed potatoes for the rest of his life?

But thankfully, his worries are just in his head, and he has no physical damage besides a slightly bitten cheek and some bunny-foot shaped bruises.

His eyes open wider as he processes the fact that he is not fox-flavored floor gravy.

Be thankful for the little miracles.

What he does see is an older buck staring down at him with a raised brow. If Nick had to guess, he’d say the rabbit is in his early to mid twenties.

“Didn’t clear the hallway in time?”

“Nope.”

“Ah. Yeah, they did Gideon the same way,” the buck chuckles as he reaches a paw down for Nick to grab onto. The weary and broken fox lifts an arm and grasps the rabbit’s paw, trying to ignore the many pops and creaks his abused bones make.

The buck yanks Nick back into a standing position, but doesn’t stop there. Before Nick can fall back down to his knees in agony, the buck wraps his arms around the fox’s back and gives a few tight squeezes.

Satisfying cracking noises fill the air and Nick feels sweet relief flood back into him.

His legs, now operational again, lock themselves under him and he’s once again a whole fox. The buck removes himself from Nick’s personal space and gives the fox a quick salute before strolling into the kitchen to find a seat before they’re all taken.

Nick rolls his shoulders and pops a few more joints in preparation for what he’s going to have to go through in the eating area. If that wave was just for the dinner bell, he can’t imagine what he’s going to actually have to go up against when it comes to getting any food for himself.

The only ones in the hallway are himself and...Judy’s father, still left unconscious with about a trillion bunny prints covering his face and body.

Nick feels the poor rabbit’s pain.

Looks like nobody’s coming to get him.

…

Nick sighs and reaches down, sliding his arms under the shoulders of the hefty rabbit. With a grunt of effort, Nick lifts Stu as high as he can and pulls him along the floor and into the kitchen to join the rest of the family.

Judy and Bonnie have fallen into a sort of practiced routine, speeding around like jackrabbits to serve the family measured portions so that everyone gets enough to sate them. Looking around, Nick sees that there are no chairs left at the table, just like he had feared. The fox lets out a sigh and resigns himself to standing against the wall with his unconscious bunny buddy.

Bonnie notices the two shoved awkwardly off to the side and seems to remember that her husband is still out like a light. With barely a wasted motion, Nick sees her toss a wet rag across the room, straight onto her husband’s head.

As soon as the cold rag touches him, Stu jolts awake and regains his footing.

He goes through a number of phases as his mind catches up to the present, including a brief sob, a scream of terror, a yelp of pain and a sigh of exhaustion.

But after all that, he gives a simple stretch and cracks his back.

Then he’s off to join his family like nothing happened. Besides for giving Judy a fatherly hug from behind and lifting her from her feet, he doesn’t seem too out of sorts. He must be used to passing out for some reason. That can’t be good for his brain.

“Where have you been this whole time, Jude?” he asks as he wanders around and grabs a portion of pie for himself, forgoing a seat at the table. “We saw what happened on the news...and...well, we thought we saw you getting mauled. Was that someone else?”

Judy cringes and almost drops the stack of plates she’s careful passing out, making sure not to breathe on anything. It occurs to her that she probably shouldn’t be serving her living relatives food, since a tiny spec of spit from her could cause an outbreak inside the walls of the burrow. She sets the pies down for whoever she can reach but doesn’t go to grab any more plates.

The unserved bunnies give her looks of confusion and hurt.

“Uhm...no, that was me,” she answers cautiously. Nick gives the family a strange look, trying to figure out just how much of the current situation they know about. Have they been hiding behind this wall the whole time? Do they...not know about what the infected are like now?

Stu and Bonnie stare at their daughter.

“What? But...you’re here, though!” Stu argues, setting his plate down and going to pass out some of the unserved plates to the remaining kits. Bonnie stops serving and seems to tune out of the conversation around her.

Something Judy said must be finally registering in her mind.

“You...are you dead…?” Bonnie asks, shooting her daughter a look of horror.

Judy closes her eyes and takes a deep breath to steel herself.

“Well...yeah.”

Luckily the rest of the family is too rowdy and loud to hear what is being talked about. But for Stu and Bonnie, Judy’s words are the loudest noise they’ve ever heard. Judy spoke those words so softly, but they appear to have given the two older rabbits some form of tinnitus.

Bonnie leans against the wall, trying to keep herself from passing out like her husband had.

Stu looks like he’s in denial about the whole thing.

“Jude, that’s...that doesn’t make any sense! How can you be dead? The dead don’t talk, you know! The dead can’t drive here and knock on gates or...or…” he tries to continue, but something in his brain is cooking him alive.

“The dead certainly can talk, Mr. Hopps,” Nick finally speaks up. Bonnie and Stu turn to him as if they’re just remembered there’s a fox in the kitchen with them.

“What?”

“Let me ask...how much have you seen of the outside world since this started?” the fox inquires in a firm but caring tone. Stu shakes his head, trying to process the question while at the same time forcing himself to stay in one piece. He looks like he’s about to explode.

“None! We don’t want the kits to see what’s going on out there! And what are you doing here, anyway? Are you dead, too?” Stu demands.

Nick sighs and does a simple spin around to show himself off.

“Nope, alive and well. But Judy isn’t lying about being dead. She’s just awake,” Nick says to the fuming rabbit. Stu’s ears sink behind his head and he takes on a more combative stance.

“And what does that even mean?!”

“Okay, look. Without going into much detail, there’s an infection that is spreading throughout the world, right? Animals get infected and come back after they die. With me so far?”

Stu reluctantly nods his head.

“So you know about them coming back, okay. Good. But the ones who come back regain control over themselves after a little while. If they can realize that the infection is a bad thing for them, it stops controlling them and they walk, talk and live almost like normal again,” Nick tries to say in the simplest terms he can. In truth, the whole thing still confuses him a bit as well. But he knows that what is happening to Judy is happening to most animals around the city.

This is the part that makes Stu’s jaw drop in shock.

Bonnie isn’t doing much better, but she at least looks like she is believing him.

Nick wraps a paw around his bunny and pulls her against his side, ignoring the small squeak of surprise she makes at the sudden contact. Stu and Bonnie both gasp as his treatment of their apparently-dead daughter. They can sense there’s something weird going on already.

“And Judy here, the little trooper, was one of the first I saw work through the infection’s influence. She wasn’t as fast as my brother, but he’s always a grump. There was no way even the high that the infection causes would make him happy enough to change.”

“Wait wait wait, hold up...so what you’re telling us is...Judy is dead. But she’s still herself. And where does that leave you in all of this?” Stu asks with a bit of an intimidating glare.

There it is.

The ‘Who Are You To Our Daughter’ thing. Nick’s been through this before, but never with bunny parents.

“Well, if you had tried to call her, you might have known all of this already,” Nick skillfully deflects. A tiny smirk reaches his lips as Judy perks up.

“Hey, yeah...you guys have been here this whole time, alive, and didn’t bother trying to call me? I tried to call you a bunch of times, but you didn’t answer! What’s with that?” she demands irritability. Her parents shrink away from their daughter’s sudden interrogation.

“Judy, we have no idea where our phones are,” Bonnie says her first words in a while.

“Yeah, right about the time where everyone else came pouring in to hide, they up and vanished! We’ve been relying on Gideon for outside contact for weeks now. He’s the only one we let in,” Stu explains.

“But for some reason, our data usage has gone way up! I don’t know how, but I think someone’s got our phones. They’re still being used!”

Judy blinks at her two parents, a few things becoming obvious to her in the most relieving of ways.

One: her parents didn’t ignore her on purpose.

Two: she already knows how to find the phones.

Judy pulls out her own phone and opens it, her bunny paws navigating through her apps in a flash of unnatural speed.

“Last time I was here, I downloaded apps onto both of your phones,” she explains. Stu and Bonnie give her confused looks.

“What? Why?”

“Because you kept losing them!” Judy sighs as she finishes pulling up the app she had been searching for. With a few more taps, her phone lets out a chorus of beeps. Judy’s face lights up as she shows her phone to her parents.

“It’s in the burrow!” she chirps proudly.

“Uhm...okay,” Stu concedes, the previous point about Nick’s relationship with his daughter completely forgotten for the time being. The fox smirks as he internally congratulates himself on another successful verbal hustle.

Stu never saw it coming.

Judy narrows her eyes at where her phone is telling her to look.

“Uhhh...it says that both phones are in...Jerry’s room? Has he been around lately?” Judy asks in confusion. Nick feels the tinglings of familiarity tickling his brain. Something he’s seen in the past little while seems like it might be a clue.

“Yeah, I see him around. He’s usually busy outside, though. But...I have seen Miranda and Jannette ducking in there a few times before. Does that mean anything?”

Nick feels it hit him all at once.

The kits from earlier, the four of them...they looked to have been going right towards where Judy’s phone is saying to look. He remembers them saying something about...spaghetti!

Judy is out the kitchen door and down the hall in an instant. Nick, Stu and Bonnie are quick to follow her, leaving the fate of the kitchen in the very capable hands of the few adult Hopps children.

The rest of the pie is gone within two seconds in a flurry of fluff and bun.

As the group closes in on Jerry’s room, Nick can hear the tell-tale sound of screaming kits. And something sounds disgusting and wet. What in the world are they doing?

Stu takes over at the door, pulling out his ring full of keys and expertly choosing the exact one he would need to open this specific door. Nick is amazed at how easily he was able to select the one right key out of hundreds on the ring.

That has to be a legitimate superpower.

The door swings open, and Nick isn’t ready for the sight he sees.

There’s the same four buns he saw earlier, but three of them are in an inflatable pool full of cooked spaghetti. The kits roll around and scream at each other while the buck who kept his shirt on films the whole thing...on a suspiciously new-looking phone.

The filmographer of the group is the first to see his irate parents standing there giving him a death glare unlike anything he’s seen before. His face goes from grey to white in an instant and he looks like he’s watching every possible execution method his parents have in store for him playing out before his eyes.

“Oh…” is all he can say.

The shirtless and oblivious buck sees this as the perfect time to launch himself out of the pool and directly into his brother, using his pudgy belly as a wrecking ball.

“BUBBY!” he shrieks as he body slams them both across the room and into a desk. A loud crashing sound can be heard off the side as something collapses over them.

It sounds expensive.

Nick and Judy stare in amazement.

Stu and Bonnie are inside the room already, pulling their screaming daughters out of the spaghetti pool to give them their just deserts. More screaming comes from the corner of the room from the two trapped bucks.

Nick turns his head as he hears something crashing back in the kitchen. He sees a flurry of motion as the bunnies in the eating area throw themselves some sort of rabbit riot.

Nick gives his bunny a wide-eyed stare and clears his throat.

Judy pulls her face from her paws and gives him a questioning look.

“Is this...normal?” Nick asks fearfully.

Judy just sighs and shakes her head.

“When the family is all here? Pretty much.”

Nick swallows.

Even in a place untouched by the infection, chaos still reigns.

What a world they live in.

><><><><><*****><><><><><

A hundred miles away, a polar bear cub gets an idea.

Instead of crushing the head of the one who caused him so much pain, maybe there’s another way for him to get back at her.

His plan involves him leaving the safety of the mansion, but...at this point, he can’t bring himself to care. It’s not really any safer to him than anywhere else, anymore. The only thing that waits for him back in that building is more heartache.

But...maybe he can help the one he cares about.

The Alpha mentioned that she has ever more wolves under her command somewhere. If he doesn’t do something, what’s to stop the rest of them from attacking? What if they succeed in killing Selena this time?

Barry can’t stomach the thought.

The Alpha wolf is giving him such a wide eyed look of fear that it almost brings a smile to his face. She knows now what he felt like when he was waiting for his unpleasant death to take him. As much as he wants to get back at her...he realizes that it just isn’t in him.

He doesn’t want to become as bad as they are just because they hurt him first.

Barry wants to stay Barry.

What would Barry do?

Well...he would find the location of the hideout first. If he tries to bring help now, there’s no way that the Alpha will lead him to the actual place. But if he goes alone, and she thinks that he’s falling for whatever trap she’s setting for him…

He could do some good.

Even if he just has to run back to the mansion with the info, it would still be better than letting the wolves regroup and gather a bigger force with a better plan.

It’s only a matter of time before they employ siege tactics.

Barry knows about them from the books he’s read, and he knows how fast a compound of refugees can fall when deprived of basic necessities.

Selena will be upset...but at least she won’t be dead.

Barry makes his mind up.

Using his most convincing acting skills, he makes a big show of sighing and slumping his shoulders down in defeat. The Alpha sees that he doesn’t have what it takes to finish her off and lets out a sigh of relief. He can already see the devious smirk of victory on her lips.

Good thing she doesn’t see his.

“We got a deal then, cub?” she asks smugly. Barry pretends to reluctantly nod his head, giving some extra cheesy sighs and whines for good measure.

“Great! Now get me off of this stick!” she orders, as if she’s giving commands to just another one of her pack. Barry holds his contempt for her in and does what he’s instructed.

Pretty soon, Barry sneaks his way over the wall to the property and drops down onto the outside hill that leads to the road. The Alpha’s head is held firmly in his grasp, though she manages to complain every few seconds about his rough handling.

He can barely hide the smile as he pretends to accidentally drop her head.

Barry feels immense satisfaction as he goes through the classic motions of ‘keep kicking the ball farther away from you’, but with a wolf’s head instead of a ball.

The sounds of the Alpha’s shrieks for help fill the air as the cub ends up chasing her rollaway head down the hill, putting in just enough effort to catch her before her head flies under the tires of a passing vehicle.

What Barry doesn’t see, however, is the wide pair of bunny eyes watching him make his escape. Selena’s heart drops as she sees her best friend in the whole world running away from her.

In a second, she’s gone from her place next to her tree as she takes off after him.

The sun sets on the mansion, signaling the end of the day and the beginning of an ordeal.


	27. Hive Mind

Barry can’t believe how much he doesn’t stand out.

He’s got a wolf’s head in his paws and that’s the least interesting thing going on around him.

Every other mammal passing by has something fascinating about them that classifies his odd situation as mundane. What’s so special about one wolf head, when there’s an entire herd of heads rolling down the sidewalk? Barry even sees them roll over a smaller mammal at one point.

The Alpha sees all of this happening, but maintains her bored expression. She must be used to this level of madness going on all around her.

Despite his hatred for what she’s done to him, Barry can’t help his feelings of curiosity. Being the leader of an undead pack of wolves must come with a lot of interesting stories. And being the bookworm that he is, Barry craves new perspectives and tales.

“So...do you only have wolves in your pack?” he asks suddenly. The Alpha’s ear flicks at his sudden question and she blinks a lazy eye up at the cub holding her.

“Are you asking if there are only wolves in my wolf pack?” she spits condescendingly. The tone of her voice irks Barry, but he keeps his emotions hidden away from her.

“Yes?”

“...Well, I mean, we have some dingoes and coyotes. A few hyenas too. But mostly wolves,” she answers with a much more bright and bubbly inflection. The cub takes an astonished inhale, not having expected the wolf to answer like that. Why did her tone suddenly shift so much? It can’t be because she loves her pack all that much; she never seemed all that upset for all the ones she lost in the raid. Dozens of pack mates gone in a few hours and she was only really worried about getting herself back home.

“...Okay. So why aren’t you upset about losing the raid?” he asks, giving away a bit more of his true intentions than he meant to.

“Oh, I’m absolutely livid!” she snarls, falling back into her normal Alpha talk.

“Really? Could have fooled me,” Barry shrugs. She gives him a grin that he reads as ‘I AM fooling you!’ The cub sighs and shifts her to his other arm to carry for a while.

“Believe me cub, if I could fight back, I would. Right now all I can do is get back to the rest of my pack and let them know where to-!”

She stops when she realizes that she almost just blabbed away her plan. She shuts up and tries to act like she hadn’t been saying anything at all.

“Why did you even attack? They weren’t doing anything to you,” Barry asks with a fairly obvious hint of anger in his voice. The wolfess scoffs at him and rolls her eyes.

“Oh, please! We’re zombies and they’re meat! What, did you lot think you could just gather all that meat for yourselves without sharing? Why are you protecting your meat so valiantly? There’s plenty to go around!”

“Because up until yesterday, I was the meat!” Barry growls down at her. She gives him a confused expression that goes through a few different changes as she connects the dots in her head.

When she figures it out, it’s like a lightbulb goes off in her head.

“Wait, you’re that cub! The one that got infected! Wow, it didn’t take much time at all for you, huh? No wonder I didn’t see any other undead pups. You’re the only one, huh?”

Barry seethes in anger but doesn’t answer.

“That has to be lonely as hell. They probably all hate you now. Sucks, doesn’t it? Oh well, you’re better off out in the city anyway, cub. There’s meat if you can find it and fun to be had!”

“I’m not into what you would call ‘fun’. Chasing down mammals and killing them just because you can? That’s not me.”

“Cub, we’re damn zombies. We need to eat them or we’ll rot away into dust!” the wolf argues, sounding more offended than he thought she would be. Barry frowns down at her, their eyes locking for the first time since they met.

Barry huffs. If she wasn’t so evil, she would be pretty. Even if she's just a head. The cub might be young, but he can tell when someone appears conventionally attractive by society’s standards. If the world never ended, she probably would have been a stylist or even a model.

It’s a shame her actions make her so ugly.

“That ain’t true,” Barry informs her.

“What isn’t?”

“Zombies don’t turn to dust if we don’t eat the living. They’ve been eating nothing but fish in there since this whole thing started and they’re fine,” he tells her. She gives him another confused look.

“Huh? What are you talking about? Your group has, like...an endless supply of meat in there! You’ve been eating them the whole time!”

“Lady, I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but that mansion isn’t some sort of meat farm. It’s a survivor camp! They’re trying to preserve the living and bring life back to the planet! Not one undead mammal in there has had living meat. They’re fine eating fish and you would be, too!”

“That’s bullcrap! And you know it! I’m sure you know the taste by now, you ate when you turned! We all did!” she stubbornly shouts over him.

“No I didn’t!”

She smirks.

“Yes, you did! You might not remember it, but you went nuts when you first turned and killed someone! Probably someone important to you!”

“No, I actually didn’t! They had me tied to the bed when I turned and I calmed down!” Barry yells back. A few mammals watch the cub yelling at the head in his paws with varying degrees of concern.

The Alpha blinks at him in surprise.

“But...you had to eat. We’re feral until after our first kill!”

“Not me, apparently. I saw my friend looking at me and I found a piece of myself. I wasn’t fully feral for more than a few seconds,” Barry explains to her, though he doesn’t think she’s listening anymore.

“No, that’s…” she mumbles to herself. Barry continues walking in the direction she had told him earlier to go in, ignoring her little personal breakdown.

Whatever the wolf chooses to believe is her business. If she wants to continue on like her movie-inspired worldview is the one and only truth, then that’s all the more reason for him to be doing this.

The neighborhood around him gets darker and more sketchy the further he goes. All around, he can pick up faint traces of canine smell. Barry blushes when he notices that some of the scents are spicier than others. Are the undead still going into their respective seasons?

That’s...really strange.

The cub clears her throat and tries to move as quickly as he can through the busy sidewalks. His haste is halted by another wolf calling out to the Alpha.

“Eeeey, Missy! How’d that raid go you were bragging about?” the male laughs jovially. The Alpha tries to twist her head to face the one taunting her. Barry groans and manually turns her head to let her get it out of her system.

The two yell at each other back and forth, a sound that becomes an irritating white noise to Barry after a while. He tunes them out and lazily glances around at the architecture around them to try guessing which part of Zootopia they’re in now. Just by the smell, he can tell they’re in canine county.

The sound of the Alpha and the other wolf barking at each other like a pair of primitive pests only confirms his obviously correct theory.

The barking stops and is replaced with strange wet smacking sounds.

Barry glances down at the head in his paws and is horrified to see the two previously-arguing wolves making out like there’s no tomorrow. The cub screams and proceeds to beat the other dog with the Alpha's head, ignoring her cries for mercy.

The other wolf finally scampers off to parts unknown. The Alpha is left dizzy and confused, her eyes spinning around in lazy circles.

“Wh-what the...HEY! What was that for?!” She complains. Barry just continues walking, though he ran out of directions to follow.

“THAT’S GROSS!” he shouts back at her, which only makes her grin smugly. Something about the devious twinkle in her eye gives him the chills.

“Wow, you really are just a cub! That was just a dominance display, nothing out of the ordinary for wolves!” she chuckles. Barry makes a big show out of looking disgusted, but internally, he’s actually pretty intrigued. It’s not every day he gets to see canines indulge in their traditions.

“I don’t want to hear about who dominates you!” he replies with a fake pout. The Alpha starts to rebuke him, but quickly realizes that he had turned it into a joke.

She laughs, and it’s actually not a bad sound. It’s not smug or sinister like she normally sounds, and seems much more genuine.

The Alpha’s laughter continues until a tear trails down her face, at which point she calms to a chuckle and catches her breath.

With what lungs, though?

Barry is very curious about how she actually functions. How can she speak or breathe without lungs? If she eats, does it just drop down out of her neck? There’s so much to learn from a living head that he wishes he could find out from anyone else. But, just his luck, he gets stuck with the wolf who caused his death.

But hey, nobody ever claimed knowledge was free.

“Okay, okay, ya got me good. Nice one, cub,” she admits and finishes her chuckling. Barry looks at her face for any signs of sarcasm, but sees none.

Huh.

Apparently she’s able to drop her Alpha act every so often.

“Turn left here, cub!” she barks, realizing that Barry is walking right by where they need to go. The polar bear looks down the street she wants him to walk down and instinctively feels the urge to keep moving.

The street in question looks like it’s been abandoned for years after three gang wars and a turf squabble.

Maybe a food cart turnover. Those are always messy.

Why does she want to go here, of all places? There’s a perfectly good anywhere else to the right! Barry even sees a few kits playing in the street over there, away from the death sentence of a left turn.

“C’mon! Hurry!” the Alpha demands, her mask of dominance right back in place. Barry sighs loudly, making sure she can hear him. She only lifts a brow in response.

“Ugggggghhhhhhh fine…” he relents.

She smiles up at him.

He can see the same devious sparkle in her eyes as before. She really isn’t at all sneaky enough to hide the fact that she’s planning something. Barry even has time to go over a list of possible double-crosses she could spring on him, and what ways he could get out of them.

The Alpha is giving him plenty of time to prepare.

Why is she so open about this crap?

Maybe...wait, is she putting on a show for him? Like he is for her?

What if she’s planning something over the top of what he thinks she’s planning?

She has to be the Alpha for a reason!

There has to be something he’s missing. Any tiny little detail that could hint him to what her real plan is. Offering him a place to stay is obviously a bait-and-switch for something far more evil and contrived.

Barry’s knees start to tremble as he walks, which jostles her head a bit. She gives him an irritated glare but doesn’t say anything to stop him. Ooh, this must be the endgame of hers. She doesn’t need to deceive him anymore, does she? He’s too far into the spider’s web and the spiders are hovering all around.

The cub swallows hard and peers all around him. The windows are all boarded up and there aren’t many doors left intact. There’s graffiti all over the brick walls; at least a few decades worth.

This is the exact kind of place Barry was told never to venture into.

So why does he keep walking?

Despite the imminent danger, Barry can’t help the shiver of excitement that shoots up and down his spine. This is just like one of his books! He’s in his own crime drama, at the exact paragraph where the protagonist is set upon by the villain’s henchmammals.

His claws flex around the Alpha’s head as he plans his next move. Should he run now? No, they are probably expecting that. He can’t go back now, the only way is forward.

A building looms above him now, at least twice the height of the rest of the surrounding apartments. Contrary to the empty ghost buildings around him, this one has a strange aura flowing from it. It feels much more lived in and recently used.

This has to be it!

The Alpha’s hideout!

He should run!

Now!

...Now!

Why aren’t his legs moving?

The Alpha looks up at the trembling cub holding her, a sense of satisfaction reaching her as she gets the impression that her home is intimidating to the young cub.

That feeling is quickly turned to nervous confusion when she sees that the cub has an elated smile on his face, unlike any she has ever seen before. His sharp teeth are on full display as he bounces up and down in barely-contained eagerness.

What is he so happy about? Has he never seen a building before?

The Alpha shivers.

This cub is creeping her the heck out.

Oh, well. Might as well introduce him to the rest of her pack.

The wolf purses her lips together and whistles as loud as she still can. It’s not as loud as when she had actual lungs, but the sound is enough to stir the wolves inside the hive. If she had shoulders, she would shrug.

The cub chirps and does a little dance when he sees the first wolves beginning to emerge from their hideaway. They’re just black shadows at first, but there're so many of them! They crawl out of every exit they can find. Doors, windows, holes in the walls, all of them are leaking wolves at an astonishing rate.

The Alpha wasn’t bluffing! There really are way more undead mammals on her team!

Barry can’t keep his giggle from slipping past his lips. The wolf held under his chin gives him a quick ‘WTF’ face.

The strangers reach the ground in droves and move to surround the cub and his passenger. He watches them encircle him with glee, seeing it as a scene from his favorite book series leaping right off the pages to greet him.

Barry looks around and notices that he’s completely surrounded by much taller, meaner looking undead creatures.

Brilliant!

Bravo!

“AHAHAHA! YES! IT’S PERFECT!” he cheers in his overly loud voice. The shadows around him seem to look at each other in confusion, not understanding why he’s screaming like that. The cub dances around the ring of intimidating corpses, looking at their postures and form.

“Good, good, yes! Oh, LOVE the synergy! Seriously, you guys had to practice that for hours! Am I right? Am I?” he demands with a scarily elated expression. Some of the pack, still hidden by the darkness that the apartment building casts, give their Alpha a concerned look.

She offers them an exasperated huff and a roll of her eyes.

“Ooookay then. Uh, so, like...this is my pack. Pack, this is cub. Don’t know his name. Anyway, I promised him a place here if he brought me back. Now, what do we all say to that?” the Alpha asks, her sinister grin growing.

Barry can’t believe this is happening to him!

A real world double-cross! Oh, the dramatic tension is so amazingly fitting!

What are they going to do? Charge him all at once? Wait until he’s looking one way just to leap at his back? Run in circles until he gets too dizzy to defend himself? So many possibilities! He can’t wait to see what they go with!

“Thank you,” the crowd of wolves say calmly in unison.

Nobody makes a move besides for some of the undead shifting positions to get comfortable. Barry waits for a few more seconds with bated breath, hoping that something will actually happen.

Come on!

He’s ready for it!

But they don’t attack him. Nobody jumps with claws extended. No jaws fly at his neck with intent to kill. There’s not even so much as a brick thrown in his direction.

Barry’s shoulders slump down as he deflates.

That’s it? Just a thank you? There’s no hidden layer to all of this? The Alpha, this whole time, those little evil looks she was giving him...that was just her resting bitch face, wasn’t it?

A loud groan echoes around the walls of the buildings around them as a certain cub’s dreams are crushed in an instant. And it’s only made worse by nobody around him understanding what’s bumming him out so badly. Was he expecting more?

“Look, cub…”

“Barry…” he sighs with little emotion left in his voice.

“Barry, fine. Listen, do you want a home or not? We have enough space here for more, and you’re welcome to stay. Just...keep quiet about that fish thing, alright? A lot of the mammals here have taken lives that they didn’t want to take. If they find out that they haven’t needed living meat this whole time, it might actually destroy them. Got it?”

The cub sways from side to side in a daze.

Someone steps out of the crowd and offers to take the Alpha’s head from his paws. He relinquishes possession of the wolf with no fight.

There’s no fight left in him.

And he had been looking forward to tossing her head in the trash can as a bluff...all of the little plots he had been forming in his head are rendered useless. Is this what it feels like to realize that you let a bias control you?

But...he had reason to believe she had bad intentions! She’s the reason he’s dead!

It just...doesn’t make sense to him.

“Missy, is...Rocky...?” the female hyena with the Alpha’s head in her paws asks down at her. The Alpha steels herself for having to deliver the bad news to everyone. She knows now that the losses she caused weren’t even a necessity, and it hurts her all the more to say what she has to.

“I’m sorry, Pack...the raid was a total loss...I’m...I’m all that’s left…” she tells them with an emotional but clear voice. Her declaration hits the crowd hard, as many of them are reduced to howls and tears within moments.

Barry stands by awkwardly as they express their grief in the only way wolves know how. A long, forlorn note stretches through the street and echoes off the walls.

Should he be watching this?

Despite how much her and her pack hurt him and almost hurt his loved ones, he can’t help the pang of sympathy that passes through him. They were under the impression that they needed to eat the living to survive, and were only trying to feed their own, apparently…

Would he have done the same if he had the same mindset?

Probably not...but he doesn’t know for sure. That perspective was never forced on him.

The one holding Missy presses her head to the Alpha’s and the two share their sadness together. Barry’s seen enough of this.

He wants to leave.

But...will they just attack again if he does?

“Hey,” the cub calls out to the lead wolf. She has her holder turn her so she can see Barry.

“Oh, yeah...uh, make yourself at home, I guess,” she says, trying to hide her sniffling. The polar bear shakes his head and adopts a more relaxed, casual posture.

“No, I’m good, actually. But…”

“Yes?” the Alpha inquires, blinking at him a few times. He would just deliver her for free? And just to return to the place where he’ll be the odd one out and despised for it?

“Remember what I said. Just leave their kind alone, okay? You have other methods,” he says cryptically. None of the other pack members know what he’s talking about, but Missy definitely does. She takes a deep breath and looks at him with a bit more respect.

“Okay, I will. I’m sorry,” she states confidently. An immense weight is lifted from Barry’s shoulders as he hears her say this. What he thought might have turned into a war between the living and the dead fizzles into what he can only describe as a misunderstanding and a promise for correction.

They might not be able to take back what they did.

They can’t give Barry his life back.

But if they can continue on and make the world better for it, then maybe his sacrifice was worth it in the long run.

Barry turns to leave.

A sudden scrambling sound catches his attention. The trash can he had been planning to use is knocked over and it makes the strangest squeak when it clatters onto the road.

Wait.

He knows that squeak.

Barry’s heart nearly bursts as his eyes fall over the fallen form of his best friend in the road in front of him. Her wide bunny eyes stare up at him with fear and shame.

The cub’s eyes glance to the side and see that, yes, her commotion had not gone unnoticed. Dozens of undead eyes are locked on her tiny form.

A collective predatory growl starts to shake the ground under Barry’s paws.

He sees red.

In an instant, he has the bunny in his arms and faces off against the charging pack. His mind falls away from him, allowing the strange new things about his body take over. His jaws feel like they can crush steel. His claws can slice diamonds. He can lift a mountain.

Whatever it takes to save his bun.

Selena buries her face in his chest and hides away from the quickly-approaching pack.

“STOOOOOOOOP!” bellows the familiar voice of the Alpha. The pack, surprisingly, listens to its leader and every single canine stops on a dime. Their eyes remain locked on the bunny meat, but their attention is solely on their Alpha.

“SIT!” she commands.

Barry, with his vision still shrouded with red, watches as every member of the pack takes a seat on the sidewalk.

Selena is watching the spectacle with her friend, both of them unable to believe what they’re seeing. They always thought that an Alpha just made decisions in a pack, but the way this pack is functioning, the Alpha is much closer to a queen bee.

She controls the hive.

“Barry, take your friend and leave. I have some things to discuss with my pack…” she says with an authoritative tone. One look at her face clears Barry’s mind enough to nod and follow her orders.

He tucks Selena into his shirt and ducks out just as Missy begins explaining to her family just what mistakes they’ve been making since the world ended.

“Barry, I’m s-”

“Not now.”


	28. Dying for Pie

Nick can’t believe it’s actually happening.

He’s dreaming.

It has to be an illusion.

Nothing so perfect can possibly exist.

And if it can, there’s no way it would be for him.

But his eyes don’t lie.

Before him sits a piece of pie.

This has to absolutely be the most beautiful, wonderful, amazing thing to ever grace a plate. The freshly baked crust lets off a steam, carrying with it the scent of expertly cooked blueberries. Nick can see the fruity chunks sliced so carefully along the sides of his piece, tantalizing his taste buds with just their presence.

Never in all of his life has Nick laid eyes on such a delicious looking slice of blueberry pie. How could it be? After the riot that the extended Hopps clan held in the kitchen, the fox thought for sure that he had missed out.

But apparently the matron of the family knew better. Somehow, some way, she had saved him a slice and it’s just as fresh as if it had just been pulled from the oven.

Nick can feel his eyes drooling.

As soon as the plate touches down on the table in front of him, it’s true love. Now that the kitchen is empty of its tsunami of bunnies, it’s actually quite a serene place. There’s lots of room and the entire area just sings with rustic charm. The fox thought that the underground feel would make him nervous, but he’s actually very content.

Now that he’s not being trampled, that is.

Judy sits at the table across from him, awaiting his first bite with eager excitement. It’s not often she gets to see someone try her mother’s cooking for the first time.

The last time she was there to witness it, an ambulance had to be called.

Yeah, it’s that good.

Nick sees her expression and smirks slightly. He deliberately cuts the smallest piece off that he can, moving his arm with all of the speed of a sleeping snail. His bunny’s eyes move between him and his fork rapidly and she starts vibrating in her seat.

Bonnie walks by with an arm full of fresh vegetables, giving Nick and her daughter a questioning glance. The fox just winks up at the older bunny and gestures down to the still-bouncing Judy.

Bonnie scoffs and carries on with her work. The actual dinner still had to be made, after all. The family stew won’t cook itself.

Nick lifts the fork to his muzzle and parts his lips veeeeery sloooowly.

Judy stares with wide open eyes.

The fork moves closer.

Judy bites her lip.

“Aaaaah,” Nick teases, the bite of pie now only a hair length from his tongue.

His bunny looks like she’s about to pass out.

Instead of putting the pie into his mouth, he moves it away and blows softly on it.

“Bit hot!” he chuckles, relishing in the look of disappointed fury she’s giving him. Ah, just like old times. Just him, his bunny and the sparks of potential murder flying between them.

He blows on it for far longer than is comfortably necessary. Each exhale makes Judy’s teeth grit a little tighter.

“...OH JUST EAT IT ALREADY! IT’S NOT A BIRTHDAY CANDLE!” she shrieks at him. Instantly, Nick is reduced to uproarious laughter to the point of tears. She finally understands that he was just messing with her and proceeds to jump onto the table to attack him.

“JUDITH!” scolds Bonnie the second her daughter’s feet touch the wood of the eating surface. Judy flinches and jumps right back down into her seat, trying to pretend that she didn’t just plant her dirty feet all over her mother’s favorite table.

Nick feels a warm breeze flowing from Bonnie’s direction, but nothing else becomes of it. His bunny continues to watch and wait for him to take his first bite, even though her pout is too adorable for him to ignore.

He pretends to take a bite but goes for a wide yawn this time. Nick can hear Judy’s head slamming on the table repeatedly, drawing a satisfied chuckle from the tod.

But for real, he can’t not taste this pie anymore. Just breathing near it is enough to get a slight trickle of the actual taste.

He’s in for a treat.

He actually goes to eat some of his baked good, but something catches his attention next to him. He lifts a brow and peeks over, his eyes locking with a wide set of baby blues.

Nick yelps and almost drops his bite of pie.

He would have never forgiven himself.

Judy looks up and notices the new arrival at the table.

“Jess?”

“Oh, hey Judy. Thought you died,” says the strange new bunny sitting awfully close to Nick. He scooches over a bit to reclaim some personal space, but she follows.

“I did,” Judy says bluntly, her eyes scanning over her sibling for any clues as to what she’s doing here.

“...Cool,” Jess replies simply before blowing a bubble of mint-scented gum. It pops right next to Nick’s fur, giving him flashbacks of his last experience with chewing gum.

Shiver

The bunny seems around Judy’s age, but has a sleek black coat of fur as opposed to her sister’s pleasant grey. Her attire looks like every punk stereotype under the black hole sun, mixed with a squeeze of gothic. She has a few piercings along her tall black ears that appear self-performed.

Ouch.

Nick tries to ignore the invading rabbit and goes to take his bite of pie.

His arm is snagged by the doe, who clings tightly to it and rubs her chin and cheeks all over. Nick blinks in confusion at the slightly disturbing events happening to him.

He just wants to try the pie!

Is the universe punishing him for taunting Judy?

While the fox might be clueless to the ritualistic display, Judy and Bonnie certainly aren’t.

“JESSICA MARIE HOPPS!”

“JESSWHATAREYOUDOINGTONICK?!”

The black bunny looks up at them, the sudden screaming startling her out of her mission. Her ears flick from side to side as she faces her opposers.

“What? He didn’t smell claimed.”

“Young doe, that does NOT mean you get to go chinning yourself over any male that enters the burrow!”

“Well what about Bailey with Gideon?” Jessica shoots back, pouting in a way that Nick would expect to see on a four-year-old.

“What ABOUT Bailey?!” Bonnie demands, moving in closer for the kill.

“She claimed Gideon last week! Dragged him back to her room and everything!”

“Oh GOOD LORD IMMA KILL ‘ER!” Bonnie roars as she stomps her way out of the kitchen to go rid herself of one of her daughters. This, unfortunately, leaves Nick alone with Judy and her two sisters.

Wait…

Two sisters?

Where did this one come from?!

The bun to his left is a much smaller doe, this time with white fur. She looks like the polar opposite of Jessica, from colors to attire and all the way down to demeanor.

Jess is bold and loud, while Nick can already tell that this new bunny is quiet and timid. He didn’t even hear her enter the kitchen or sit down. She just appeared and has a workbook open with a sheet full of advanced math problems in her grip.

She looks up and Nick notices the large, thick rimmed blue glasses covering her face. The stranger offers him a tiny smile before returning to her homework.

Woah, she’s flying through those problems. It’s like she doesn’t even have to think about the numbers at all, they just show up in her head.

Judy looks between Nick’s two new bookends with her jaw hanging open in barely contained rage.

The fox tries to switch the fork to his other paw, he finds that his left arm is just as trapped as his right. The math wiz doe presses herself uncomfortably close to him, but doesn’t actually say anything.

Jess sees Nick looking at something other than her and peeks around his back. When she sees her smaller sister sitting there, she loses her cutesy pout in favor of a vicious snarl.

“HEY! YOU CAN’T USE MATH! THAT’S NOT FAIR!” she complains loudly to the kitchen full of nobody listening to her. Nick groans, the pie lingering just out of his muzzle’s reach. If he could only move his arm just a bit more…

“Not you too, Gwen!” Judy sighs, her face smushed tightly into her paws out of sheer disbelief.

‘Gwen’ looks up and sees Judy sitting there for the first time. A bright smile graces her face, making her glasses slide a bit higher.

“Hi, Judy! We were so worried about you! Glad to see you made it back safe and sound!” she chirps, completely ignoring the sister shooting her a death glare from the other side of the fox.

“Yeah...sure…” Judy says nervously. Nick has noticed that lately, there isn’t much about his bunny that appears ‘dead’ anymore. Her fur has a healthy fluffiness to it and she doesn’t even smell that bad. If someone didn’t know she was a zombie, they probably wouldn’t notice.

Nick’s attention is captured by Gwen’s math book being inched closer to his plate, the bunny not so subtly trying to get him to watch her. At the same time, Jess tugs on his arm again and this time successfully makes him drop his fork back down onto his plate. The single bite of pie rejoins its kin. It seems so close, but Nick whines at the realization that the pie might as well be a solar system away from him.

Something is determined to keep him from getting his slice.

“Ooh, dibs!” shouts yet another unfamiliar voice from behind the poor fox. A pair of bunny arms latch around Nick from behind tighter than any bunny should be capable of. He chokes as the air is forced from his lungs, courtesy of another one of Judy’s many sisters.

“COME ON!” Judy shouts as more and more does join the growing crowd. Within moments, Nick can barely breathe. Dozens of eager bunnies fight over him in what can only be described as a ‘frenzy’.

What is going on?!

Why so many rabbits?!

Just at that exact moment, Bonnie walks back into the kitchen with dark maroons stains on her paws.

...That had better be jam of some kind.

She takes one look up at the chaotic pile of fluff and fox before her temper shoots right back up to its boiling point.

“GIRLS!” she bellows at the top of her lungs. Every shouting Hopps in the room goes quiet instantaneously. Nick can finally hear his rapid heartbeat and the sounds of sniffing coming from all around him. Someone has their paw in his ear. Though they stop screaming, Nick can still feel multiple paws grabbing at him possessively.

“WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO ALL OF YOU?!”

Every Hopps daughter in the room starts talking at once, giving the fox at the center of their dogpile a massive headache.

They’re all so squeaky!

“One at a time! Girls! Only one of you at once!” Bonnie shouts over them. Most of them quiet down until the only one left talking is Jess.

“Male! Male male male mine MINE!” she screeches as she attempts pulling Nick from the pile.

Apparently they’ve devolved into seagulls.

Bonnie gives her daughter a bewildered look and sighs into her paw.

“Uhm…” pipes up a tiny voice from the crowd. All heads turn towards Gwen, who had somehow managed to finish her worksheet in the middle of the warzone. She’s a bit squished from everyone else piled on her, but her glasses aren’t broken at least.

Bonnie exhales in relief, happy to find one of her daughters who will no doubt clear up all this confusion.

Gwen clears her throat.

Bonnie listens expectantly.

“Mine.”

The mother bun’s face drops in disappointment.

“Mom? I think I know what’s going on,” Judy says from the other side of the table. Her mother walks around the mass of writhing bunnies to talk to her.

“Yes?”

“They aren’t respecting my dibs,” Judy growls out of nowhere. Nick tries to stand up to possibly retreat, but he feels that the bunnies didn’t even spare his legs. Five or six hang onto his bottom half, a few of them in very awkward positions.

Nick doesn’t like this.

Not one bit.

“Your dibs?! He wasn’t scented!” Jess screams. The others all voice their agreement but are quickly back to each other's throats.

“That’s because I’M DEAD!”

The room goes quiet again.

Bonnie watches her daughters in horror, not sure what to expect of such a bombshell being dropped on an already volatile situation.

“Wait, what?” Jess asks with a trembling voice. Her eyes are the widest that Nick has seen them so far. He can barely even see her caked on mascara anymore.

“I told you this already!” Judy groans at her sister.

“I thought you were joking! How can you be dead?! Are you...are...you one of them?”

“A zombie?” Judy asks.

The entire stack of bunnies on top of Nick nods in unison.

“Yeah, for almost a month now.”

If Nick thought he had a headache before, then what happens next only makes him regret being born with ears.

Dozens of high-pitched voices scream as loudly as they can, their combined sound creating a torture unlike any other.

Even Judy has to slam her ears against her head. But poor Nick can’t move a muscle as his eardrums are pierced by the excruciating sound waves flowing out of their little bunny mouths.

He could be begging for them to stop, but he can’t hear if anything is even coming out of his own mouth.

“OKAY! THAT IS ENOUGH OF THAT!” Bonnie’s voice somehow overpowers those of her daughters. They all stop screaming at once. Woah, now that’s a cool trick. He needs to learn that in case he ever gets his hearing back.

What’s that ringing?

Oh, that’s annoying.

“Mawp…” Nick squeaks, trying to find out if he can hear himself at all. The results are less than pleasing.

“Now then, why don’t you all climb down off of the nice fox and we can have a civil discussion? Is that still within your abilities?” she asks all of her daughters. They don’t answer right away, but eventually a few start to climb down. Nicks feels a little lighter as each doe removes herself from him.

He can breathe again!

But then he notices how much distance the girls are putting between themselves and Judy. Everyone seems shaken, like they’re ready to run for their lives if they need to.

Nick can tell that it’s affecting his bunny.

Her ears are droopy.

Finally the last doe climbs down from his head and he’s mostly free. Jess is still latched onto him and Gwen is still squished into his side, but that probably isn’t her doing. She was at the bottom of the pile.

“Okay, look…” Nick starts, afraid of how quiet his own voice sounds even though it feels like he’s talking loudly. “How much about the zombies do you girls even know?”

“They eat brains!”

“They go aaaaaaugggh!”

“One nibble and you’ll sparkle forever!”

Nick plants his face in his paw pads and groans loudly for all of them to hear. They stop trying to answer and listen intently.

“You know what? I’m just going to let you girls watch TV for a few hours and let you soak in what the world is actually like out there right now.”

“Dad says we can’t!”

“Yeah! Too scary!”

“Lots of blood!”

“Very death!”

“Much zombies!”

“Wow!”

“I don’t care what your dad said about it, okay? He hasn’t been out there and he doesn’t know what it’s like. There are things you really need to see to understand what Judy is going through!”

Judy’s ears perk up as she figures out that he’s standing up for her against the mob of does. She stands off the side awkwardly, not wanting to spook her siblings more than she already has.

“She won’t bite us, right?”

“She doesn’t look dead!”

“Who’s Judy?”

That last one gets a stern look from Bonnie, but the look collapses when the matron admits to herself that it might be her fault for having too many kits. Some of them are bound to get confused at some point or another.

“Just...show me where there’s a television in this place…” Nick sighs. The fox pulls himself away from Jessica, who complains vehemently. He ignores her and stands up to follow the others pulling at him.

Jess joins the flock, but Gwen stays seated where she is. She looks down at her math book sadly before starting to pack it away. Judy walks over to her and offers her a small pat on the head to soothe her. Gwen accepts the affection, but doesn’t regain any of her energy. Out of all the Hopps daughters to assault Nicholas Wilde that night, she’s the only one not to follow.

Nick is led to a large open space in the burrow filled with couches and other recreational furniture. There’s a different television on every wall, far enough apart from each other that the sounds probably wouldn’t conflict with the neighboring television.

All of the TV’s have ‘Out of Order’ signs hastily taped to the screens. Nick scoffs at the cheap method of parental control and pulls the paper off like it’s nothing.

A few gasps ring out behind him.

“How brave!”

“So strong!”

“Okay, I get it!” he cuts off any further compliments. The does are quickly getting on his last nerve with how tactless they’re being. “Just sit back and take in the info, got it?”

They swoon over his commanding voice and nod along to words they’re probably not even paying attention to.

Nick clicks the power on and watches the screen flash to life.

“Hey! That’s not out of order at all!”

...The schools being shut down are having an extreme effect on this family.

He ignores the doe and flicks through the stations. To the Hopps girls’ amazement, most of the channels are still on. This confuses a lot of the older ones.

Shouldn’t the end of the world mean the end of cable television?

But even the cartoon stations are playing. It’s mostly reruns, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary.

Finally, Nick settles on a news station. Good ol’ ZNN glows brightly in the dimmed room, the faces of the two undead news anchors filling the eyes and minds of the bunnies watching.

In terms of the actual news, it’s actually pretty bland. There are some shenanigans that only zombies could get up to, but most of it is just weather and sports.

The biggest story is about a Pro-Living Mammal March going on in Sahara Square, hosted by members of a familiar Naturalist Club.

The signs they’re holding are fortunately covering any unmentionable bits.

Nick gives the image on the screen an approving nod. It’s good to see that Gazelle isn’t the only one in Zootopia trying to help in any way she can.

He feels a slight tap on his side and sees Judy looking up at him. Nick gives her a tilt of his head, to which she just gestures to the side of the room.

She wants to talk.

The fox follows his bunny across the room to one of the other couches. He sits...no, sinks down into the cushion, feeling like he’s falling for a moment. Judy gives a tiny chuckle at his ordeal and takes her own seat next to him.

“So…”

“So?”

“Sorry about my sisters and that whole...thing.”

Nick gives her a lifted brow.

“Yeah, what the heck was all that, anyway?” he asks, rubbing a few of the places he knows he’s bruising from having so many limbs digging into him.

“That...was what happens when you coop multiple burrows of rabbits into a walled off plot of land and tell them that they might be some of the only ones left alive. The idea of being alone forever is terrifying for a bunny. So...when a healthy male walked in, I guess they just kind of lost themselves. Doesn’t matter that you’re a fox, by the way. We just want company.”

“So they were trying to do bunny mating ritual things?”

“Pretty much,” Judy answers as she looks back and watches her family, who are all glued to the screen like it’s the first time they’ve ever been exposed to it. It’s not surprising, given that what they thought the world had been reduced to was mostly inaccurate.

“And...the math problem bunny?”

“Oh, you mean Gwen?”

“Yeah, big glasses and the textbook.”

“That was just another type of bunny courtship.”

Nick goes to reply, but is struck dumb. It takes him a minute to actually process this.

“Wait...what? Math problems? How is that a courtship ritual?”

“To show our potential partner how good we are at multiplying,” Judy says with a lazy shrug.

“You’re...you’re pulling my leg.”

“Nope!”

“That’s...that’s just silly…” Nick groans into his arm. Judy gives him a teasing smirk and punches his shoulder gently.

“Worked on you!”

“No it di-...wait...no...NO...the tax thing?!” 

Judy just smiles.

A few rooms away, down the hallway of the burrow, a bunny with thick-rimmed glasses is in much better spirits. While she works on the next chapter in her big book of math problems, she munches happily on the dessert left on the plate in front of her.

Someone left a perfectly good piece of blueberry pie on the table, just for her!

How sweet of them!


	29. Bitelife

“Why did you run away…?”

“What?”

Barry looks down at the tiny bunny’s face peeking up at him from inside his shirt. Her body heat against his chest makes it feel like she’s burning up with a fever, but the cub knows that it’s just because of how chilly his body naturally is now.

The walk back to the mansion is slower but less eventful than the one to the pack’s street. Barry has to constantly make sure that no one around him can see the tiny mammal tucked against his chest, which makes for a lot of turning away from people passing and the occasional backwards walk. The undead around him creep him out thanks to his pre-existing fears of death, and he has to remind himself that he’s just like them now.

It’s not like they’re trying to scare him. The mammals he passes are actually all fairly pleasant, save for one mushy-looking sloth who slowly snarls his way when Barry gets close. Maybe he smelled something offensive on him.

“I said...Why. Did. You. Run. Away?” Selena asks much more clearly. The combative tone she usually wields is strangely missing. She seems so much smaller because of it.

“I didn’t run away. I left to find the Alpha’s pack. I had to make sure they weren’t going to try to attack again,” Barry explains.

“And…”

“And they’re not. They had the wrong idea about what they needed to survive, and thought Gazelle was just hoarding all of the meat for herself or something,” he explains. The bunny shifts around inside his shirt to find a new comfortable position.

“So...what now?” she asks softly, already cringing like she’s afraid of what he's going to say.

“Now, I’m bringing you back to Gazelle’s. You shouldn’t have left in the first place, Sal! You could have died! Horribly!”

“So could you!” she squeaks. Barry gives her an unamused stare, which is quite difficult due to her position. He can’t bend his neck that way.

“Sal, I’m already dead,” he says flatly. The bunny just shakes her head and punches his chest with one of her soft paws.

“Not all the way! I saw those wolves! They could have torn you apart and I would have never seen you again! Ever!” she screams.

Even in the fading light of the city, her head is still partially visible. Barry notices an undead jaguar giving the bunny in his shirt a strange look.

Fearing for his friend’s life, he quickens his pace to get farther away from any prying eyes. As she is, Selena appears like a severed head from a distance. But any animal who gets close enough would be able to tell that she’s actually alive.

He needs to be more careful with her.

“...Are you going to stay?” she asks, catching his attention once again.

“Huh? Stay where?”

“At Gazelle’s. You won’t just wander off again once you bring me back, right?” He wants to say no right away just to make her happy, but the more he thinks about it, the less he wants to return. The mansion has nothing for him besides the friendship of a certain bunny. He doesn’t help, he isn’t really being saved from anything by being there, and the living don’t trust him.

Would leaving for good be the right choice?

He hasn’t thought about it seriously up until now. It was always someone else’s decision to make. But now that he’s dead already, and the adults barely know him, what’s stopping him?

Besides Selena, of course.

But…

Selena is more than enough to keep him there, and he knows it. He’s just not happy about it. Out here, in the city, he feels much more comfortable. He doesn’t stick out like a missing claw when he’s among the other undead.

Even the Alpha wolf who caused his death in the first place showed him more compassion than the survivors back at the mansion. 

How screwed up is that?

Plus, if he left, he might be able to find his parents.

Selena looks up at him with such wide, begging eyes though. His heart might be dead, but it’s not cold enough to hurt her like that.

“I...don’t know…” he answers honestly. She gives him a terrified look and latches her arms around him protectively.

“No! No, don’t leave! Please! We need you there!” she pleads with watery eyes. Barry feels an ache spreading through his chest as he watches her grovel. It’s not something a bunny like her should have to do.

“Who? Everyone there hates me,” Barry responds. Selena tilts her head, the numerous faces from the mansion passing through her head as she tries to come up with a rebuttal.

“Bianca and the fox she’s with,” she states confidently.

“They have a ton of living kits to deal with, they don’t need me around there making everyone nervous,” he says back, shooting her down without mercy.

“But...what about me?”

Barry cringes, having expected this assault on his conscience. She knows how much she means to him and knows how much he’d be willing to put up with to see her happy.

“You…are safer when I’m not around. If you hadn’t known me, you wouldn’t have left the mansion. I don’t know how you followed me the whole way without getting caught, but it was a risk that you wouldn’t have taken otherwise,” he explains to her, trying to sound more like an adult.

Selena gives him a dark glare before turning her face away from him.

“If I hadn’t known you, my parents would have ripped me to pieces.”

Barry feels the weight of her statement slamming into him like a truck. He tries to get her to look back up at him, but she refuses. Her body shakes inside his shirt, a sign of emotion that Barry has come to know all too well.

Great.

He made her cry.

Again.

Some friend he is.

He continues walking, even with the ten-ton weight against his chest. She eventually cries herself to sleep, even though she’s being suspended by his shirt collar.

Barry’s known her to be able to fall asleep in almost any position, so this comes as no surprise to him.

What is he going to do with her?

There’s no way she’s just going to let him walk out again. This isn’t a debate she is willing to lose. If he sneaks out, he suspects that she’ll go out and get herself killed just to teach him a lesson.

Or something extreme like that.

The cub lets out a sigh just as the last bits of sun disappear from the horizon. The night is in full swing and for the first time since the world ended, Barry gets to see what happens when the lights go out.

It’s like an entirely different world.

Everything might be moving when the sun is out, but once it sets, the city is truly alive. Neon lights are everywhere, advertising different services and events that only take place in the dark.

Barry hears multiple street performers opening up their first songs for the evening, their voices full of passion and excitement. Street vendors appear out of nowhere, selling flashing toys and glowing hamster balls.

Wait, huh?

His eyes aren’t deceiving him. A cart full of hollow plastic balls with rainbow colors is wheeled out just as a group of heads rolls by. They stop at the cart and apparently have enough money on them to all buy their own. Within minutes, the heads are rolling away in style as the successful vendor continues down the sidewalk with a much lighter cart.

Groups of joggers go running by, and Barry sees that they’re each making sure to not outpace the mammals with missing limbs. A bright smile reaches the cub’s face when he sees a squadron of heads challenging a wheelchair-bound bottomless zebra to a race down the sidewalk. It’s all in good fun, of course, and the sense of togetherness hits Barry hard.

He wants to be a part of this.

They’re having so much fun!

Why couldn’t mammals have been this eager to play together before the world ended?

Well...maybe the world ending is why they’re doing this. It’s like an entirely new start to each of their lives and they get to choose to spend it with each other, having fun.

It almost makes the undead cub cry.

He wants to belong to it so badly, and he wants his best friend to see what’s going on.

Barry shakes Selena a little, just enough to stir her from her nap. Her floppy ears fly up and smack him in the face a few times, an action that he is completely convinced is on purpose.

“What? I’m sleeping…” she yawns. He shakes her again and receives another ear slap.

“What?!”

“Look!”

The bunny looks around for the first time and her eyes are immediately drawn to the numerous colorful displays going on around her. Never in her life has she seen so many beautiful lights! She whips her head around inside his shirt to see as much as she can all around her, accidentally getting her ears tangled up in the process.

Just as she’s getting a good look at a cart full of balloons, the vendor spots her head and gives her a kind smile. Selena squeaks fearfully and spins back around to hide. The vendor, an undead porcupine, sees that she’s scared the poor bunny and tuts.

“Sorry, sweetie! Didn’t mean to frighten you! I know it’s not easy being small and a roller. Here you go, love, this one is on me.”

She jumps down from her cart and walks over to the pair. Barry’s protective instincts flare up at her sudden approach, but she gives off no signs of aggression. She holds out the balloon for Barry to take to give to the nervous kit. Selena almost reaches her paw out of his shirt to grab the string being offered to her, but Barry stops her before she can expose herself.

He graciously accepts the small gift and looks up at it. It’s a balloon in the shape of a heart, with some kind of flashing ball rolling around inside of it and illuminating it with every color he’s capable of seeing.

Selena's eyes sparkle at it like it’s the most amazing thing ever. Barry carefully feeds the bottom of the string down into his shirt for the bunny to grab onto without showing her living flesh off to the world.

She grabs it eagerly and pulls it down a few times, which makes the flashing ball inside of it roll around in circles. Her face breaks out into a wide grin as she bounces the balloon some more. It’s the best feeling in the world, seeing her happy like this.

Barry turns to the porcupine and offers her a small nod of appreciation.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he says politely. The vendor back, gesturing between him and what she perceives is Selena’s severed head.

“You take care of her, ya hear? It’s a dangerous world out there for the small guys. They need as much help as they can to get by. But you look like you’re pretty much her guardian angel anyway.”

Suddenly, leaving the mansion had become a much harder decision.

Or easier, in the other direction.

But the world around him right now...can he really go back to being an outcast among outcasts? He’d be so miserable...but at least he’d have his friend there.

Until...she gets sent away to the larger refugee center that he overheard Gazelle talking about. Some sort of fortified thing to restart the world inside of. If what he heard is true, and all the survivors are getting sent away, then there’s no way he would ever be allowed to see Selena again.

The bunny, enraptured by the balloon, doesn’t seem to notice the look of depression on her friend’s face. He would rather she didn’t see him cry anyway.

He continues moving along the sidewalk, his darkened mood ruining a lot of the benefits of the colorful atmosphere. Selena is enthralled by every sight she sees, from the street performers to the game of headball being played by a group of undead mammals around their age.

All the while, she bounces her balloon to a tune only she can hear.

Barry tries to see himself living a jovial life among the undead residents around him. No matter how he looks at it, he can’t imagine himself enjoying it without Selena there with him. Her absence would sour every note and dim every light.

He needs her.

She’s a part of him now, no matter what.

“Ooh! Ooh! Movie!” Selena squeaks up at him, her ears flicking at something down the road from them. Barry glances around and sees a large brick wall being Illuminated by a modern film projector.

Is that digital?

He walks closer to the event taking place and scans the crowd for details. Everyone seems to have brought their own chairs, and the ones who didn’t make do with sitting against the wall. A few vendors sell snacks here and there, but there doesn’t appear to be anyone charging for admission.

Barry walks to the very back of the crowd, where no one will pay him any mind, and sits down carefully so that he doesn’t squish Selena. Around them, everyone is watching the film so intently that they don’t bother with the recent arrival who smells strangely of living meat.

A decent portion of the crowd consists of kits, cubs, pups and the like.

Everyone’s together, with no hostility or shouting, just to enjoy a movie.

“OOH! This is my favorite movie EVER!” Selena squeals louder than she should. Barry shushes her quickly, trying to ignore the various looks that are being shot his way. When he looks up to meet them, he is surprised to find no anger behind them. The others see his passenger and give him supportive smiles.

Apparently being a head holder is a valiant role in the apocalypse.

Barry looks up at the screen as an animated cheetah woman dances with some sort of hairless animal. He has no idea what it’s supposed to be. Whatever he is, he’s dressed in a fancy blue coat while the cheetah is wearing a dazzling gold dress. They’re in a ballroom unlike anything Barry’s ever seen before.

A room like that could never exist in real life...right?

Up until the zombie outbreak, he’d only been exposed to the icy architecture of Tundratown. Pretty much everything is new to him here. His family never had enough money to see movies, so he’d taken up reading to entertain himself.

Books are cheap and readily available, even in the poorer parts of Tundratown.

So for the cub, this viewing party is a brand new experience.

And not just because he’s an undead polar bear with a living bunny tucked into his shirt.

Her warmth is actually very comforting to him. She’s almost like a heated teddy bear that can actually hug him back when she wants to.

A cool, chilly breeze blows in and completes the cub’s checklist for the night. Everything is perfect in this moment. He has his best friend, he’s not being looked down on for being different, he’s seeing a movie for the first time, and he even gets the drop in temperature he had been wishing for.

It’s a serene moment that he gets to lock away inside his brain to revisit for the rest of his unnatural life. No matter what happens now, he will always have this memory.

There’s not a force on this planet that can take it from him.

Selena laughs along with the movie, her voice mixing in among the many other youngsters in the crowd. Barry smiles pleasantly at the beautiful animation and charming characters, but is too relaxed to laugh with her at the moment.

He’s content to just enjoy the atmosphere around him.

For an apocalypse, this is definitely the best one possible.

As the movie goes on, Selena yawns more and more often. Eventually, she shifts position so that she’s partially laying down against him. He moves his arms around her and allows her to use his wrist as a pillow.

Her eyes blink sleepily up at the movie, which is starting to draw to a close. No one seems to be getting ready to leave, though, so maybe they have more movies lined up. He wouldn’t mind staying for a few more. Anything they could show him would be a first.

“Sleepy…” Selena yawns. Barry reaches up with his other paw and rubs her ears gently. It’s something he knows relaxes her. Many early nights in the mansion were spent calming her down from her original night terrors. Her ears were quickly found to lull her to sleep in minutes.

She squints up at him with a pleasant but tired expression.

“I love you,” she says softly right before another yawn pulls her into the lands of slumber. Barry’s body freezes for a moment to process these words spoken so simply. He can’t believe his ears at first, but the adoring looks coming from the few adults around him confirms it.

She actually just said that.

And then she fell asleep. 

She didn’t say it just to guilt him into saying it back. It’s like she doesn’t care if he wants to tell her the same, she just had to let him know.

Barry looks up at the stars.

They’re gorgeous tonight.

They’re burning balls of gas so far away that no life from this planet’s present or future will ever get to see them up close. None of the problems he’s facing affect the stars at all. To them, nothing has changed.

They don’t have to experience the apocalypse.

Well, unless they’ve already exploded and he’s just looking at the old light of dead celestial bodies.

Space is big that way.

But no matter how much easier it would be to just be a star burning with no worries and no pain, he wouldn’t trade his life for anything. If he had the choice to become a star, if it meant giving up everything he’s seen and everyone he loves, he would reject it in a heartbeat.

Barry takes an unnecessary breath and lets it out.

He doesn’t need to take air in, but it just feels like the right time to do so.

Selena lets out a tiny snore and worms his cold chest just a little more.

B-bmp

The cub jumps at the sudden pressure in his chest, where his heart used to beat. Something inside hurts in such a familiar way...what is happening? Selena didn’t kick him in her sleep again, did she? She has a habit of doing that.

His body must be doing weird dead stuff again.

Yeah...that has to be it.

A sudden motion right next to him catches his attention. His instincts tell him to bolt right away to keep his bunny safe, but a giant ear in his peripheral vision calms him down enough to control himself.

Finnick plops himself down next to the pair, his large, emotionless eyes focused on the new movie that has started playing. Barry looks down at Selena to make sure that he didn’t end up waking her. Luckily, she just shifts a bit and lets out another snore.

Barry might have been afraid of the wrath of an adult ready to scold him...but now, he feels like something has changed between them. Finnick’s air isn’t one of irritation or disappointment. The fennec seems almost understanding of the cub’s situation and choices made.

“She safe?” Finnick asks under his breath.

“Yeah,” Barry says simply, their voices drowned out by the opening musical number of this strange new movie. This one appears to be taking place under the water.

Weird.

“She follow you?” the fox asks further.

“Mhm,” Barry mumbles.

“Where did you go?”

“Brought the Alpha back to her pack.”

“Why?”

“Wanted to find the hideout in case they posed a threat.”

“Do they?”

“...No. Not anymore.”

Finnick glances at the cub curiously.

“You...kill her?”

“No. They thought zombies needed to kill to stay alive. She’s trying to fix that now.”

The fox slumps back against the brick wall with a stunned look on his face. He chuckles slightly and shakes his head, his belief keeping him from questioning the cub further.

The two enjoy the nightlife going on around them, which Barry knows he will miss when he leaves. It’s such an intoxicating feeling, being around so many others who know exactly what he’s going through.

He just wishes that he could be-

“Paaart of yoooouuuuur woooooooooooorld~”


	30. Stewing with Stu

“Woah...so this is where they’re all coming from?” Nick asks, nursing his first coffee in weeks and waiting for the heavenly liquid to cool down slightly. He sits on one of the swinging chairs placed at the edge of the burrow, overseeing the fields.

Stu walks by with some tools, getting ready for the day.

It’s a brand new morning and his tasks must start all over again. For the busy buck, though, this is nothing out of the ordinary. It’s a comfortingly routine day for him, just consisting of harvesting the flowers that are ready and making sure the ones that aren’t are well-watered. Being natural pest-repellents, he doesn’t need to worry about bugs destroying his crops.

All in all, the prioritizing of night howlers as his one and only crop probably saved the Hopps Family Farm from bankruptcy. It was such a blow to his confidence when the orders for vegetables just stopped coming in. And he knew there are other survivors out there, or else who would be buying the flowers?

Stu looks out at the numerous fields blossoming with the notorious purple flowers with pride. He never thought his knowledge of how to grow them would ever be more than slightly useful for his family. They’re tricky to maintain, and most other farmers abandoned them as repellants years ago.

Stu is stubborn and now he’s reaping the rewards.

But to Nick, the sight of the flower that could have possibly ruined his life forever carries a stronger sense of irony.

He almost got shot with a dart of this stuff that would have sent him into a murderous rage if he hadn’t thought ahead. Bellwether almost got away with oppressing every predator in the city because of this cursed flower. The purple menace will always hold a special place in the pit of his bowels.

But if they’re going to a good cause…

He can’t deny how much they helped Barry.

Nick hopes the cub is doing okay back at Gazelle’s. Though he didn’t seem like the kind to get into trouble intentionally.

Nah, he’s probably fine.

Nick lets out a wide yawn, inhaling as much of the fresh morning air as he can. Stu hears this and turns to the fox with a slightly suspicious look.

“Didn’t get enough sleep there?” he asks, tilting the brim of his work hat to keep the rising sun out of his eyes. Nick blinks tiredly at the older buck, not picking up on the signals that he’s being suspected of something.

“Ugh...guess not,” he replies with another yawn.

“Was something...keeping you awake?”

Nick finally catches onto what Stu is prying him about.

“Besides for the constant turning of my doorknob? Not much, I suppose,” the fox shrugs. Stu narrows his eyes and turns away so that he can pretend he’s focused on something else.

“Turning, huh? No opening at all?”

“I certainly hope not. Door was locked, after all. If it was opening, I’d have to question the craftsmanship of the door locks!” Nick fires back, already irritated with how obviously he’s being accused of being a creep.

“Hey, I built those with my bare paws! If they were opened during the night, it would be because the fox inside was up to something!” Stu spits with barely any effort to contain his spite. Nick’s face falls and he realizes that Judy might have been raised by the back end of buffalo. He can play word games all day with bumpkins like Stu, but the buck already went straight for his species.

“Sorry to disappoint you, but none of your daughters warmed my bed last night, but not from lack of trying,” Nick says flatly. Stu looks him square in the eye and scowls.

“I heard about how they piled onto you last night. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to!”

“That’s funny, coming from the father of all those girls! Guess you didn’t take the time to sit them down and inform them about how illegal it is to sexually harass someone?” Nick laughs.

Stu stumbles over his next words, leaving Nick to smirk at him deviously. This only angers Stu more.

“Don’t tell me how I should be raising my girls! As far as I’m concerned, the fact that they’re still alive is more than you can say about Judy!”

Something snaps inside Nick’s mind. As soon as those words leave Stu’s lips, he can tell he made a mistake. He’s never been at the mercy of an angry fox, but he’s about to get a crash course in the subject. The fox’s coffee splashes to the ground as he stands up to his full height, towering over the buck.

Stu’s eyes grow wide and he takes a nervous step back.

“What did you just say?”

The buck looks terrified, but apparently has the nerve to swallow his fears and press forward with his accusations.

“Y-you’re her p-partner...right? Where w-were you when she got killed?!”

Nick growls in very much the same way he had when pretending to be savage. But this time, it’s not an act. There’s no sheep to trick a confession out of, there’s just a dumb buck with no idea what he’s talking about.

“Don’t...you...dare…” the fox snarls. Stu backs up more, his paws fumbling in his side pocket for something that isn’t there.

“You think I didn’t try to help her?”

Stu trips over an obtrusive root sticking out of the grass and lands on his back. The infuriated fox looms over him, and the buck is sure that he’s about to get slaughtered.

“You think I let her die?!”

Stu clenches his eyes shut and waits for the final strike to end him and rob his children of their father forever.

But instead of a feral bark or the sounds of an attack, Stu hears frantic sniffling happening above him. He peers up at the fox, whose claws are digging into his head and his wide eyes are staring straight through the fallen rabbit.

A look of trauma is written across his features.

“I didn’t...I tried...I tried..Judy, I tried…” he mumbles to himself as his arms wrap themselves around his body. The fox slumps to his knees, cradling himself and rocking back and forth. Stu watches him, the sound of his own beating heart blasting in his ears.

He doesn’t know how to react to this.

The fox was threatening him one moment and sobbing the next.

Stu slowly pulls himself to his feet and takes a few steps closer to Nick. He is cautious at first, but gets the feeling that the fox isn’t even paying attention to him anymore. His mind is miles away at the moment.

The buck looks around for anyone to help who might have a better idea of how to help the distraught fox. But there’s no one around but him and Nick.

Everyone else is still waking up or getting ready inside the burrow.

Nick had already been sitting in the swinging chair when he went out to start his daily chores, one of the first times someone has gotten up earlier than him.

But if he never really got to sleep, did he actually wake up?

The fox is quiet now, but is still zoned way out. The look of horror on his face is still present, but it seems every other emotion has drained out of him. He appears to be trapped in a memory; a moment of time he will never forget and will constantly haunt him for the rest of his days.

Stu rubs his chin and takes a deep breath, trying to process what the fox is going through. It’s very obvious at this point that Judy’s death is still affecting him to the point of shutting him down if he thinks too hard about it. If he’s still this upset about it…

“You really do care about her, don’t you?” Stu asks softly. Nick blinks in confusion, looking around to find out who is talking to him. The buck’s presence is a surprise to the tod, having just been in the city, surrounded by stampeding mammals.

Wasn’t he just in Zootopia? Where is this?

Where’s Judy? Is she still alive?

He just remembers the way her body was being shaken…

“Judy…” Nick mumbles with a disturbingly empty tone. Stu chews the inside of his cheek, not sure what to do with him now.

“Listen, Nick...are you and my daughter...together? Like in a relationship? Not just partners? Do...do you love Judy?” he asks, thinking he might get a straight answer with Nick in this state. He doesn’t like the feeling of taking advantage of someone else’s breakdown, but he assumes that when in his right mind, Nick would not give him an honest response. He’d probably just talk circles around him again.

“Love…” Nick repeats slowly.

“Yes? DO you love her?”

“I’m sorry, Judy...I...love you…” he says to the bunny he desperately wants to see but can’t for some reason. Where did she go? Stu’s eyes grow wide and his shoulders slump. The buck exhales the breath he had been holding, and his posture falls with him.

It’s not that he’s too upset about Judy being together with a fox. Nick obviously really cares for her and is still reeling from what happened to her. And he’s already seen the way his daughter follows the fox around like a lovesick pup.

But now he realizes just how badly he’s messed up.

He didn’t just accuse Judy’s coworker of letting her get killed.

No, he actually told an already emotionally-scarred fox that he didn’t love Judy enough to save her. And Nick, with the wound still fresh, got lost in that mindset and is still floating deep below the surface of his own pain.

Stu takes his hat off and lets it fall to the ground.

He doesn’t deserve to represent the Hopps family right now. Even if it’s just himself and the fox, he feels shame for his actions and how they’ve hurt his own family.

The implications of his parting gift to Judy when she first left for Zootopia hits him at the same moment. Even if he was truly just concerned about her safety, he might have accidentally labelled her as being a specist. How much trouble did he cause her?

He hopes Nick doesn’t know about the fox repellent. It might taint the fox’s opinion of his girlfriend’s father for good.

Stu scoffs at himself.

As if Nick would have any good opinions left to ruin. Stu knows that he’s already made himself nothing more than a biased prick in the eyes of his daughter’s love interest. There’s probably nothing he can say or do to fix the damage he’s caused.

But he knows someone that can help. Stu is off in a heartbeat, racing towards the house to get the only bunny he can think of who can pull Nick from his day terrors.

Within minutes, Judy is racing out of the entrance of the burrow with a terrified look on her face. Her father tries running after her, but is too winded and has to pause for a few moments to catch his breath. Around them, a few of the other Hopps family members leak out to see what the fuss is all about. Among them around some of Judy's possessive sisters, coming to find out where their fox had been hiding all night. None of them are able to keep up with Judy, both due to her police training and enhanced zombie stamina.

It takes only seconds for Judy to reach her fox.

The look she sees on his face scares her beyond belief. It’s like Nick’s soul has left his body and the husk is the only thing left behind.

He looks like what she always thought a zombie would be like.

Not the cheerful and expressive corpses that are filling the world today, but just empty vessels. He remembers to breathe and to blink every so often, but there’s no other signs of life in him.

This isn’t her Nick.

“What happened?” Judy asks just as her father manages to jog into the clearing, a dozen of his other daughters trailing behind him. They see the fox and begin bristling with excitement, but their intentions are extinguished when they see the way he looks.

Something isn’t right and they know it.

Their instincts can wait.

“I…” Stu wheezes, his paws resting on his knees. “I told him it was his fault…”

Judy stares at her father.

“You told him that what was his fault?”

“...You getting killed…” Stu admits, his face displaying only a portion of the full weight of the shame he’s feeling inside. The look of pure disappointment and anger that his daughter gives him is more than enough to let him know that he’s in trouble.

“Why would you…? No...no, nevermind. Just…” Judy stutters to the buck and his crowd of onlookers. The undead bunny is too angry to think straight, and too worried to calm herself down. Disowning her father will have to wait, her fox is in trouble.

She squats down slightly and looks into Nick’s eyes from his level.

He looks right through her. Is he seeing anything at all?

“Nick?” she asks, her voice drawing a single ear flick from the fox. That has to be some sort of progress, right? She looks over at her sisters and father, who are all watching Judy intently. Jessica is among the crowd, giving a jealous pout that almost makes Judy roll her eyes.

“Hey, Slick, you in there?” she tries again.

He blinks simply but his eyes seem to focus on her for the first time. She gives him a tiny smile and cups his cheek with one of her paws. He is motionless for a few seconds, but eventually starts to push himself into her soothing touch.

Judy’s sisters watch this exchange with varying reactions, ranging from adoration to disappointment. They might have been told that Nick was already with Judy, but they had to see it to believe it. Jessica looks angry.

Finally Nick snaps out of his trance and wakes up the rest of the way. When he sees his bunny there staring at him, his eyes water over and he throws his arms around her. Judy yips as she’s pulled into the tight hug, but doesn’t dare try to push him away.

He needs this.

“I’m sorry, Judy...I’m so sorry, I tried! I didn’t mean to-!”

“Shhhhhh…” she whispers softly to him. His ramblings are reduced to small whines and trembles. The fox hides his face against her chest, trying to overcome the pain of losing her all over again. He’s been through this before, but thanks to the foolish words of a stubborn rabbit, has to experience the heartbreak another time.

A few ‘Awwww’s ring out, but otherwise, the field around them is only disturbed by the sounds of the fox letting his emotions out. Judy lets him hold her for as long as he needs to, but makes sure that he doesn’t get any piece of her near his eyes or mouth.

“But...why with you?” Jessica’s voice disturbs the peace.

“What?” Judy replies with a glare.

“I just...don’t get it, like why? He can’t even kiss you without killing himself, right? Out of any of the bunnies he could be with, he chose y-”

Jessica’s offensive rant is cut off as a heavy book full of math problems slams into her face and knocks her right out. Her lifeless body slumps to the grass and every eye in the field turns to the small bookish bunny with huge glasses.

Gwen, the tiny white bunny with a pissed-off expression, glares at her sisters and lets out a huff.

A fearful shiver passes through the rest of the sisters and they silently agree with each other not to mess with Judy’s fox. They’ll have to settle with fighting over Gideon, it seems. Judy shoots Gwen a thankful nod, to which the white bun answers with a supportive smile. Jessica’s body is slid comedically off to the side and left to wake up on its own.

“Judy…” Nick mumbles, no longer whining or trembling.

“Mhm?” she inquires carefully.

“I did it again, didn’t I…?” he asks, his voice tired from the mental exhaustion of reliving the worst moment of his life once more. Judy doesn’t respond verbally, choosing to just give his shoulder a quick rub with her nose.

If this keeps happening, they’re going to have to maybe find some professional help for him. He can’t keep locking up just by remembering her death. They’re in a safe place right now, but if he freezes in the middle of a bunch of zombies, or worse, he won’t be able to protect himself.

He’ll just die without a fight.

“Listen, Jude…” Stu pipes up, only to receive a harsh glare from his daughter. He flinches away from her wrathful gaze, but doesn’t give up.

“No, I’m not trying to hurt him anymore...I just have to tell him that I’m sorry for what I said to him. And it’s not just him, either. I’ve been treating predators like this for years, and...and I’m finally starting to understand where my darker biases are hidden. I thought working with Gideon would be enough for all of my distrust to be forgiven, but that was just a stupid excuse coming from an old buck. Look, what I’m trying to say, in a nutshell, is that I take back everything I said to him. I see that he loves you more than anything, and...and I’m happy that he’s the one you’re with,” Stu explains with his hat held to his chest.

Judy’s expression lightens as she listens to her father bare his soul for her.

But it’s not just for her, it’s mostly for the fox wrapped around her. Nick listens to Stu, his ears rising slightly as each emotion-filled word spills out.

Nick slowly lets go of his bunny and stands himself back up to face the buck. Stu sees him approaching and looks down at the ground in shame, unwilling to face the one he hurt so badly. A sudden movement of Nick’s arm startles him and has him hiding his face in his hat.

When nothing strikes him dead, Stu looks out of his makeshift hiding spot to see Nick’s paw extended out for a shake. He sees that the fox is giving him a firm but expectant look. The buck swallows heavily and looks back down at the offered appendage.

Without another moment of hesitation, Stu reaches his own paw out and shakes Nick’s paw.

The shake is stiff at first, but loosens up as a small smile spreads across Nick’s face. The tension in Stu’s body deflates and he’s allowed to breathe normally for the first time in a while.

“So...is everything good now? Between us?” Stu asks hopefully.

“Nah,” Nick says immediately, but his tone isn’t angry anymore. Stu flinches again but nods.

“Yeah, guess it shouldn’t be that easy, after all. Sorry again, Nick. Hopefully I can show you that I’m more than just the worst sides of me in the future. We’ll probably be spending a lot of time together from now on, so we best stay civil!” he chuckles nervously.

Nick raises a brow at him.

“What do you mean? We’re heading back to Zootopia soon,” the fox says firmly. Stu’s face falls and he almost chokes on his own tongue.

Judy’s sisters scream out in disapproval at this plan all at once, unable to accept that a living fox would go back into the world of constant danger.

“I thought you all knew this. We just came to check up on you all,” Nick shoots them down. “She still has a job to do and I have to help out with Gazelle’s survivor camp.”

“Wait!”

“Survivors?”

“Gazelle?”

“Camp?”

The overwhelming sound of the siblings screaming over each other is already giving Nick the same kind of headache as he had the previous day. He waves his paw for Judy to take over so that he can clear his head of the annoying bunny tingles.

“Uhhh...yeah, Gazelle has her own refugee center. It’s actually her house. That’s where most of the living mammals in Zootopia are staying at right now,” she explains. A chorus of excited murmurs break out among the sisters.

Nick partially listens from his place off to the side, leaving Judy the only one they are talking to at the moment.

“Are there other bunnies?!” one of the girls asks loudly.

“Um, yeah?” Judy replies, unsure if doing so is smart.

“...Bucks?” another sister inquires.

Judy’s face falls as she realizes where their minds are headed.

“Oh, no NO! We’re not bringing an entire burrow’s worth of does back to Zootopia with us! I have a hard enough time keeping Nick breathing, I can’t risk losing you all!” Judy yells over the groans of disappointment.

“What about...just one?” Gwen’s quiet voice asks. Somehow, everyone present is able to hear her. They all face her again, just to see her giving Judy the cutest begging face any of them have ever seen.

The other sisters go quiet and wait for Judy’s answer.

Nick’s ear perks up, waiting for Judy to shut the girl down.

“Well…” Judy mumbles. “I mean...I guess one wouldn’t hurt?”

Nick and Stu both stare at Judy in disbelief.

Before they can stop her, Gwen is squealing across the field back to the burrow to pack her things. Judy tries calling to her, but the bunny is long gone.

“Judy…”

“Jude…”

“...Oh, come on! Did you see that look she was giving me?!”

On the ground, Jessica groans in pain from being trampled by the excited bookish bunny.


	31. Welcome to the Family

Selena tries to reach him.

It’s no use.

No matter how hard she tries to run, he keeps getting farther away.

Why isn’t he getting away from them?

Why isn’t he fighting back?

He’s just standing there while the wolves move in on him!

Run!

Please, RUN!

Crunch

Selena’s heart skips a beat as the first undead wolf sinks its rotten teeth into Barry’s body. He just smiles and laughs down at them as they tug a chunk out of him. The wolf retreats with its piece of her friend, but another takes its place and takes its own bite.

The wolves descend on him, the street becoming a flurry of claws, teeth and flying white fur.

Selena cries and screams as loud as her lungs will allow her.

Barry turns to face her just as his arm is yanked off and tossed to the pack. They scramble for it and the limb disappears in a sea of writhing shadows. Selena’s eyes meet his and she screams for him to come to her, where it’s safe.

The cub offers her a happy smile right before his entire head is lopped off and sent tumbling to the road. His body is quickly torn to shreds and passed out amongst the wolves, leaving only the discarded head.

The distraught kit tries running as fast as she knows she can to get to his head.

But just as she starts to gain some ground, the familiar head of the Alpha wolf rolls up to Barry’s head and they start chatting pleasantly with each other. They share a few laughs before the Alpha rolls back towards the blackness of the city street, her only friend in the world rolling after her.

He’s leaving her.

Forever.

Just like everyone else.

Selena cries out in mental anguish, wanting the pain to just stop for once. Why can’t the world just let her have at least one constant? Something that she can say won’t leave or hurt her?

Her voice is overtaken by a large, booming sound. She screams louder to try to drown it out.

It only gets louder. Loud enough to shake the entire world around her.

The buildings crumble away as she stops screaming and looks around. Around her, everything starts to get brighter and other memories start to conflict with the experience she’s going through. The booming sound turns into a voice that she can finally understand. As she hears her own name being called by someone she knows, the bright light around her becomes blinding and everything falls out from under her.

><><><><>VVVV<><><><><

The bunny’s eyes spring open as she is startled into instant alertness. She springs to her feet and takes on a defensive position, ready to run from wherever the danger is coming from. Another scream tries to escape her throat, but she is suddenly aware of both her lack of air and her dry mouth.

What little she can hear of her own voice is raspy and weak.

But she takes a desperate breath to try to yell anyway.

“Selena! Sweetie, calm down!” urges a voice that is oddly familiar to her. Her ears flick every which way, trying to take in her surroundings and assess the amount of threat to her life. Her eyes lock on the concerned-looking arctic fox vixen in front of her.

Her feet take in the soft material that she knows to be her cot. Her blankets are wrapped around her one foot, having gotten tangled in her mad squirming. The air around her is processed and cool, the slightly-musty scent of air conditioning filling her nose.

There’s a pleasant chatter coming from all around her. This isn’t like the foreboding sounds of the city from just moments earlier. And it’s definitely not the sounds of her best friend being ripped to gorey chunks. There are no feral snarls or crunching noises.

...Where is she?

The last lingering flashes of the dream fade away and she finally notices that she’s safe.

She’s in the mansion again.

A massive flood of relief hits her and she allows her body to relax, her knees wobbling and giving out under her. Her caretaker sees her falling and is quick to reach forward to grab her. Selena slumps into Bianca’s arms, feeling most of her energy already drained from the amount of strain her muscles had been through.

Bianca carefully lowers the kit down to her bed and lays her down. Selena blinks tiredly up at her, the amount of morning sun gleaming through the cracks of the mansion’s defensive walls cluing her into the time of day.

All the other kits, cubs and pups are already awake and off somewhere.

“Sweetie, are you alright? Did you have a bad dream?” Bianca asks soothingly down to the bunny. The kit can still feel her heart beating out of her chest, the images of her friend’s demise still fresh in her mind.

Was it just a dream?

That’s right...just a dream.

Barry is okay. He…

Wait, why wasn’t he the one to wake her up? He always sticks around until she wakes up. Why is Bianca the one pulling her out of her nightmare?

Inside her head, she tries to catch up with the last twenty-four hours.

Barry’s reintroduction as a freshly-turned zombie.

Nick’s departure with his mother and her mate.

The lunch with Barry that ended up with him freaking out and running away.

Following him through the city, using every sneaky trick she’s ever learned to keep herself from being seen by the countless undead mammals walking around. Oddly, a few of them did actually see her, but just offered her confused looks instead of deciding to chase her.

Barry’s run in with the Alpha’s pack that started off mostly peaceful but devolved into a near-tragedy when she accidentally revealed herself.

The wolves being called off by the same Alpha who had led the charge on the mansion.

Barry carrying her inside his shirt through the city, ending up with them watching a movie together on the street with a bunch of other undead animals.

Her getting sleepy and…

Telling him that she loves him.

She meant it, but she can’t remember what happened after that! After falling asleep, everything else is just blank. Did she stay asleep until Barry got back to the mansion? How long has it been since then?

...Did he say anything back to her?

Hold on.

“Where is Barry?” Selena’s first words of the day are hard for Bianca to hear thanks to how little of the kit’s voice is left. She had screamed herself hoarse in her sleep.

“Uhm...I think he went outside earlier,” Bianca replies. Selena’s eyes shoot open as she recalls a conversation they had the previous night that hadn’t been concluded. He never actually answered her as to whether he would stay at the mansion with her or not. Bianca is surprised when the kit springs back up to her feet and hops off of her bed. Her knees wobble again but this time are able to support her weight.

“Where outside?!” Selena demands, already jogging in place to get her blood pumping. As every second passes, her body wakes itself up more. She’s ready to go within moments, back to her full athletic self.

“I’m not really sure?” the vixen replies in confusion. Selena groans fearfully and takes off across the floor, heading straight for the main doorway. Bianca is off in a flash to stop her, but can’t keep up with the tiny bun.

It doesn’t matter, though. The handle to the door is too high for Selena to reach, and there’s also a large tiger guarding it now. He sees the bunny running up to him and gives her a curious tilt of his head.

“Let me out!” she screams with her raspy voice. “I have to stop him!”

The tiger shuffles uncomfortably and sighs into his paw.

“Bunny, Chadwick cannot let you out. Gazelle ordered to watch door and keep bunny from escaping. Again,” he tries to tell her. Selena gives him a glare that reminds the tiger of the only other creature to ever make him feel fear.

He shivers nervously.

Bianca catches back up to the bunny and scoops her up in an instant. Selena squirms and struggles with all of her might to get free. Her eyes start to water as she shoots the door a desperate look.

“HE’S GOING TO LEAVE AGAIN!” Selena cries. “HE WON’T COME BACK!”

The tiger and vixen look at each in worry. They’re not sure what Selena is freaking out about, but it seems to be very important to her that she gets outside to see Barry.

“It’s okay, Chadwick. I’ll stay with her,” Bianca sighs. The tiger gives her a small nod before turning to open the door. When the kit sees the light of the morning sun washing over her and her caretaker, she stops squirming and sits still. Bianca shifts her cargo slightly to get a better grip and walks out of the mansion. Chadwick closes the door behind them and just like that, they’re exposed to the elements.

“Now, then,” Bianca starts. “What is this about, little one? You gave us all quite a scare, you know. We had no idea where you went! What were you thinking?”

“...You had no idea where Barry went, either, right?” Selena corrects bitterly. The vixen nods along to Selena’s point.

“Of course,” the vixen admits.

“Barry left first. And if I don’t stop him, he’s going to leave again! Forever!” Selena wails up at the white fox above her. Bianca’s ears fall at the sudden realization of what is bothering the bunny so much.

“Oh, Selena...why do you think that?”

“BECAUSE HE SAID SO!”

Bianca blinks.

“What?”

“Last night...when he was taking me back...we were talking about how nice it was outside. In the city. And when I asked him if he was going to go back once we got back to the mansion, he...didn’t really give me an actual answer. He seemed like he really wanted to, though…” Selena sniffles. Bianca holds her a bit closer to her chest and mulls over her words.

“Sweetie...Barry is...well, he’s a tough cub. And he’s just had his entire life...his entire existence flipped onto its head. I admit that the way the others have been treating him isn’t good. But I don’t think he wants to leave forever. He’s got something worth staying for.”

“What’s that?”

“He’s got a friend,” Bianca smiles sweetly down at the bunny. Selena groans and pulls her ears over her face to hide the expression of agony on her face.

“That’s so sappy!” she whines. The vixen laughs softly and bounces the bunny in her arms. Selena tries to hide the tiny smile that’s forcing itself onto her lips. A distant sound catches her attention and her ear flicks in the direction of her favorite tree.

Selena turns her head to look over to where she heard the noise.

Bianca follows her gaze over to the same tree where she had originally seen the kit hiding behind. Both of them are able to see the very tip of a very large, familiar ear poking out. Selena doesn’t even get to ask Bianca to move closer; the vixen is already on her way.

Selena lets out a yawn as she takes in the fresh morning air. It’s so much more relaxing than the air inside of the mansion. Living in the same buildings as hundreds of other living mammals, with dozens of undead ones also present, makes for a stuffy and smelly environment.

But the nice, chilly outside air smells nice and earthy.

Gazelle really picked a great place to live.

The hills are amazing if you have the kind of money required to purchase a property here.

As the two approach the tree, they start to see more of the ear. It is connected to a fox that one of them knows very well. She knows how he tastes, after all.

And as he comes into view, the white fur of a certain polar bear cub also peeks out into sight. Selena feels her body relax as her eyes scan over the form of her friend.

He’s not gone!

Barry and Finnick are sitting together and talking about something inaudible. Selena wants to jump down and run to her friend, but the vixen holds onto her tightly. When the kit turns her head up to ask why, Bianca nods at the two sitting by the tree. 

Selena takes a closer look and feels her heart sink when she sees that Barry’s face has the lingering trails of tears. Something about the way that Finnick is rubbing his back supportively strikes the kit as heartwarming. What have they been talking about?

Something tells her that it’s something private and very meaningful. Barry accepts the back pats and nods his head at the ground.

Finnick’s ear flicks towards the new arrivals. He spins his head around to face Selena and Bianca, his expression quickly morphing from surprise to approval.

“What are you boys up to?” Bianca asks pleasantly as she takes a seat next to her mate. The fennec slides over a bit to make room for her. Selena tries to get her friend’s attention, but his gaze is still focused on the grass.

He’s deep in thought.

“Eh, nothing. Just guy stuff,” Finnick shrugs and gives the cub a more forcefully pat on the back. Barry coughs slightly as most of the air is suddenly forced from him. When he’s done coughing, he offers a confused glance up to the rest of the mammals sitting next to him.

His face lights up when he sees Selena in Bianca’s arms. The bunny returns the happy expression, though hers contains a slightly worried wince.

“Hey, Sal!” the cub sniffles and wipes his face clear of any moisture. His happy voice lifts Selena’s hopes a bit.

“Hey, Barry,” she returns with what’s left of her voice. Her face heats up when she remembers what the last thing she said to him was.

He gives her a slightly shy look.

Oh no, he remembers!

She might just love him like a brother, but the feeling is entirely new to her. He was a stranger up until a few weeks ago, and now he’s the closest thing to family that she has left. It only took one moment of selflessness for him to inject himself into her life forever. And another moment of selflessness...to do it again.

But at the cost of his life.

Selena’s smile fades away as she realizes just how much the poor cub has gone through for her, without getting much in return.

He risked his life for her. He gave his life for her.

What has she given him?

She’s pressured him into doing what she wants and put herself in multiple situations where he had to endanger himself to rescue her. Not only that, but her attitude towards him has been one of possession the whole time.

He’s always been her Barry.

Her cub.

But he’s not a stuffed animal for her to latch onto and drag around until the stuffing falls out.

He’s a mammal, just like her. And he’s hurting.

The mansion isn’t a good place for him anymore, and Selena knows it. Their relationship up to now has been absolutely lopsided, with Barry being the only one to make any sacrifices. One look at his face and Selena knows she can’t keep doing this to him.

It might hurt her terribly, but she needs to allow him to live the way he needs to to be happy.

“Barry…” she says weakly. The cub looks back up at her with a curious tilt of his head. The kit prepares herself for what she knows she has to say.

“I’m...sorry...for trying to make you stay. I know you’re not happy here...I know it sucks. I’ve wanted you all to myself this whole time...and I’ve been selfish...and mean...and a jerk. And stupid, too! I shouldn’t have followed you outside yesterday. That was also stupid. If you...if you want to leave, and live in the city with everyone else...please, if it makes you happy, do it,” she chokes out, trying not to let herself start crying. She wants to be strong about this so badly. The adults sit and watch her with surprised looks on their faces. An apology is the last thing they ever expected to hear come out of this little bunny.

Selena sees how shocked they are, and it only confirms to her just how much of a brat she’s been. She’s young, but that’s no excuse for the way she’s acted over the last few days.

Barry’s like her brother.

She doesn’t want to see her brother cry.

The cub in question sits back against the tree, looking at her like she just turned color. There’s a very obvious storm of emotions brewing under his surface, and he’s trying to keep them all hidden inside at the same time. This results in his face shifting through several expressions in quick succession before finally settling on a strained smile.

“Thanks...S-Sal...th...that means a lot...but...I wasn’t going to leave and s-stay gone...Finnick and I were...just talking about it…” he stutters, barely containing his impending whimpers. Bianca and Selena both turn to Finnick, who is looking out at the early morning sights of the sun rising over the hills of Zootopia.

“Now I know why you like this tree so much, kit,” he chuckles, pretending he wasn’t even listening to the conversation going on right next to him. Bianca gives him a quick bop on the head and Selena throws her worst pout his way.

“Finnick!”

“Okay, alright! Relax, geesh. Anyway, yeah. Barry says he wants some time out of the mansion, and I don’t blame him. Gets super stuffy in there, and a lot of the survivors are pretty annoying. So we were talking, and we figured out a compromise. What we’re thinking is that Barry can stay around during the day, keep an eye on things and maybe help out. But at night, since he don’t need to sleep or nothing, he’ll get to go out into the city on his own and enjoy it.”

“But...Finn, he’s just a cub!” Bianca objects. Selena’s eyes are locked on Barry, who is following along to Finnick’s words and nodding every so often.

“Maybe, but he’s a big guy. Strong, too. But what he does have is a way of de-escalating bad situations, as we saw by his little performance last night,” Finn grins. Bianca tilts her head in confusion.

“Wait, where did he even go? You never told me.”

“He took the Alpha wolf back to her pack,” the fennec says casually. What little color Bianca has in her face is drained at these words. Selena can imagine that the same situation that happened in her nightmare is probably running through the vixen’s mind right now.

“HE W-?!”

“And he talked it out with them. Turns out they had the wrong idea about what they needed to do to survive as zombies. Barry here set ‘em straight. We don’t have to worry about them attacking anymore, right?” Finnick laughs, giving the cub another hard slap on the back.

“Right!” Barry says, giving Finnick his own slap on the back that sends him sprawling out onto the grass in front of him. The cub starts to apologize, but Finn holds his paw up as he stands back up. A few deep laughs can be heard as the fennec spits out the mouthful of dirty he had just been fed.

“See what I mean?! I don’t know exactly what that nighthowler stuff did to ya, Barry, but you got a mean hit there!” Finn giggles.

“Okay…” Barry says bashfully, giving his paws a suspicious look. “But that’s not all that we…”

“Oh, yeah. Also asked Barry if he wanted to join our family. As in, we adopt him,” Finnick shrugs, as if this isn’t any big news or anything. Bianca’s eyes shoot open at this and Selena practically kicks herself out of the vixen’s grip.

“Y-y-you...huh…?” Bianca mumbles in confusion. The world around her becomes blurry as her eyes start to leak. Why can she cry when she’s dead?! What’s going on?!

“I know I have to ask you first, but the both of us are okay with it,” the small fox explains to her, his casual mask fading away. He looks much more sincere now as he fears the possibility of his mate rejecting the proposal. Finn gives Barry a worried look, knowing just how destroyed the cub would be if-

“W-well, of COURSE I’M OKAY WITH IT!” Bianca cries out. She lowers Selena to the grass so that she can crawl over and wrap her arms around the c-...her future son.

Barry can’t hold his tears back anymore. As soon as he feels Bianca wrapped around him, he buries his face into her shoulder and lets loose. The two crying mammals become three when Bianca’s paw wraps around Finnick’s ear and drags him in.

The trio hug it out with the sun peeking over the horizon at them.

Bianca had thought she'd never get to be an actual mother to anyone. Kitsitting is one thing, but being an actual mother to a cub, even if he’s not her own, is the dream she had all but given up on. It’s like she can feel her heart beating all over again.

Finnick tries to hide his true feelings, as usual, but he can’t deny how much he cares about the polar bear cub. After their heart-to-heart, the fennec understands now just how much the cub has had to grow up in such a short amount of time. He came from a broken family with very little money, just like Finn had. But where Finn eventually had Marian swoop in to watch over him, Barry has him. He wants to be the guardian to Barry that Nick’s mother was to him. He wants to give the unfortunate polar bear the life he knows he deserves.

And Barry?

Barry is just happy to be part of a family again. He trusts and respects Finn and Bianca more than any other adults he knows. They were the ones there to knock the wolf’s head from his arm and they were the ones most devastated by him being bitten. Even back then, they saw his turning as their failure alone. Did they already see him as their cub?

Selena watches the three mammals together, but she doesn’t share the joy they’re feeling. She knows that they’re happy, though. Just because she’s being left out of their family doesn’t mean that she should interrupt them.

Instead, the kit sits against the tree and tries to enjoy the sights. It’s pretty much the same sunrise as every morning, but its beauty is being overshadowed by the fairytale ending happening next to her.

They get to be happy.

She’s glad for them.

And maybe someday, she’ll get her own family to share an emotional moment with.

Selena sniffles softly but doesn’t cry anymore. Crying is getting on her nerves. She never let herself cry before any of this mess happened. It’s against her nature! She’s supposed to be the tough bunny that everyone knows not to mess with!

She’s done crying.

From this moment until the end of time, she will never cry again.

A large white paw comes out of nowhere and pulls her into the hug party. She squeaks as she’s immediately trapped against Barry’s soft chest and hugged just tightly enough not to pop her eyes from their sockets.

“I’m not leaving, Sal. You’re my family, too. No matter where I go or where they might take you, we’ll always be besties. If we need to, we’ll just get some phones to stay in contact. Deal?” he says through trembling lips.

Selena nods but looks up at the sky with her nose twitching like crazy.

“I love you too, Sal,” Barry finally tells her.

...Okay, she will never cry again...starting tomorrow.

She sobs loudly and hugs everyone around her as tightly as she can.

Just over the hill, Nick, Judy and a new bunny are pulling their things up to the door of the house. One of the tigers is accompanying them, opening each defensive gate as they pass through the property.

Gwen’s ear twitches as the sounds of crying reach them.

“Hey, do you hear that?”

Nick and Judy listen to the noise and both sigh in unison.

“Yep. Let’s see what my brother’s gotten himself into now.”

“Is that...Bianca?” Judy asks.

“Mhm. And Barry, from the sound of it.”

A loud, screeching wail echoes out over the hill and has each member of the group struggling to cover their ears. Gwen looks around in confusion, thinking that someone is being murdered.

But Nick just groans and holds his ears down even tighter.

“Selena,” he says without any explanation.

Gwen gives her sister’s mate a confused look.

What kind of madness is she in for?

Judy just shrugs.

Gwen keeps her paw close to her math book, just in case she needs to brain something.


	32. A Light in the Dark

“Thanks, Duke!”

“No prob, Bob!”

The weary weasel wipes some of the grime from his face so that he can see where he’s going. Another project is done for the day, and with his help, the other undead workers were able to cut a good few hours off of their shifts. It was just a pipe replacement, but he was the only one small enough to fit into where they needed to repair. He had spent most of the early morning squirming around inside of the wall, getting cobwebs and dirt all over his coat as he dealt with the faulty plumbing. The other helpers made sure to feed him down the tools he needed and were quick to pull him out when he needed water or air.

Because of his help, they saved themselves the trouble of having to replace the drywall as well.

Regardless of how much Duke’s muscles ache or how slimy he feels, he couldn’t be happier about his role in the mansion. He’s kept busy most hours of the day with the upkeep in a building that’s hundreds of mammals over capacity.

And he loves it.

The mammals around him don’t treat him like a criminal when he’s around. His service to the community doesn’t feel like community service. He wants to help, and his help is very much appreciated. He can’t even recall the last time he’s done a task and not been thanked repeatedly for it.

Why couldn’t his life have always been like this?

It’s so much more satisfying to go to sleep at the end of the day, knowing that he made a positive impact on the mammals around him. It sure beats starving on the street or waiting in a cell.

His first task of the day already wore him out a good bit, but at least he got it done in a timely manner. He still has time for a shower before his favorite part of the day.

The bathroom he walks into is way too big for a mammal like him, but it’s the only one they set aside for the helpers. The rest of the bathrooms in the house usually have lines leading down the hallway, especially in the morning. And since he’s the only helper that actually needs a bathroom every so often, he pretty much gets the place all to himself.

Unless he takes pity on the youngsters doing their potty dances in the normal lines, then he sneakily allows them to use his special room.

Today is rather quiet so far, so he casually climbs his way up to the counter and turns the knobs on the sink to fill it with hot water.

He takes a look at himself in the mirror and pauses.

Is this him?

Can’t be.

He’s a far cry from the scrawny little rag he used to be, when he was working the streets. Because of his consistent diet and constant exercise, he’s already bulking up in a good way. His limbs feel much more solid and even his chest is starting to gain some more detailed features.

His eyes, while tired, convey a spark of life and excitement for the future that he didn’t know he could ever possess.

Duke sits at the edge of the sink with his legs dangling in the steaming hot water, just looking at himself. It only took a couple weeks to start looking like this. Was it so close to him the whole time? He could have been looking like this for years, and the only thing keeping him held back was a few projects and some healthy eating?

The weasel sighs and leans forward, turning the water off and letting his aching body slide fully into the sink.

The hot water feels amazing as it washes over his throbbing muscles. He notices that the water is already dirty, and he hasn't even scrubbed yet. Maybe he’s a bit more messy than he thought.

His bath goes much the same as normal, with a few tiny squirts of fur shampoo and some body wash to keep him from smelling like the mustelid he is.

When he feels he’s sufficiently clean, he drains the water from the sink and slides himself out the dry off.

His fur feels unusually fluffy when he’s done rubbing it down with his miniaturized towel. It’s actually just a paw rag for a much larger animal, but it works fine for the way he uses it.

Upon taking another look in the mirror, he’s even happier with his appearance. Without the dirt and grime of whatever’s been building up inside Gazelle’s walls, he’s actually pretty fetching now.

Duke flexes a muscle for himself in the mirror and can’t help scoff at how silly he looks. Imagine, Duke Weaselton admiring himself in the mirror!

He laughs once more before dressing himself in some fresh clothes and exiting the bathroom.

Duke’s just in time for his favorite daily shenanigan. The weasel climbs up onto the frame of a very specific door. Multiple voices can be heard coming from inside, some of them heated. Uh-oh, sounds like they’re fighting again. Nothing he can do about it, though.

He sits and waits for the tell-tale sound of approaching hooves. Just as the door opens, Duke steps off the ledge of the door with expert timing and plants himself right on top of his favorite perch.

Using the two horns to balance himself, Duke is once again riding around on one of the most famous singers in the mammalian world. And, just like every morning, she doesn’t notice that he’s on her head now.

“Good morning, Duke…” Gazelle sighs tiredly.

...Or not.

“Mornin’ Gaz,” he responds. As she walks, he looks around the mansion and enjoys the feeling of being tall. Being the little guy might have its perks, but it definitely has its disadvantages.

She grunts slightly and continues to the kitchen, where she finds the table and sits down roughly in it. The sudden motion almost throws Duke to the floor, but he uses his newfound strength to stay upright.

He can tell that she’s not up to their normal game of ‘throw the weasel.’ Something is definitely eating at her.

“Why so long in the horn?” he inquires as he jumps down from her head and lands safety on the kitchen table.

The undead idol shoots him an irritated look, but relaxes it when she sees that he’s not trying to tease her. She lets out another sigh and rests her cheek on her hoof.

“I cannot afford to keep the survivors here much longer...my resources are dwindling and I have no more money coming in. We are trying to get to the Refoundation Society here to pick up the living, but they are not giving us any straight answers. And...I do not even know if I can trust these mammals…” she explains grimly, a frown souring her lips.

Duke scratches at his chest thoughtfully.

“The ones that are supposed to be leading the repopulation project? Why wouldn’t you be able to trust them?” he asks curiously.

“We have urged them to send a representative so that we can be sure that they have nothing but pure intentions for these mammals. But every time we ask, we are either ignored or scolded. After the last call we had with them, I do not believe I can hand over these innocent citizens to them. They seem like they are keeping secrets,” Gazelle tells him. His brows crease as he listens to her.

“And...why isn’t there money coming in again? Aren’t you pretty much a superstar?” he asks flatly, storing away the other conversation for later.

“Duke, I am a zombie now. I am not the symbol of beauty I used to be. The public does not want to see a corpse dance on stage!”

He frowns at her.

“Of course they would. You’re Gazelle! Or are those hips lying to me right now?” he smirks. She gives him a look of pure exasperation and swats at him playfully.

“Yes, yes, that is my name! That does not change the fact that no one would want to see me anymore. I am okay with this...my place is here, protecting these good mammals,” she sighs sadly.

“Well, you won’t be able to protect them if you can’t feed them, Gaz.”

He sees the hurt look on her face and quickly changes his tone.

“Look, Little Miss Long-Horn...you’ve been cooped up in this place, running yourself into the ground for almost a month now. No sleep, no time off, just work, work and more work. With the occasional dogfight thrown in. If you stress yourself out so bad that you end up making the wrong decision, then all of this work will have been for nothing. You know what you need?”

Gazelle looks up at him with a weary but interested expression.

“What?”

“A day off.”

Her eyes widen at the thought of leaving her home behind for even a moment.

“No! I cannot! Not with all of these innocent lives at stake!” she flatly refuses. Duke sees something walking by the kitchen. Immediately, a plan works itself into his head.

“Hey, Cottontail!” he shouts suddenly. The bunny in question peeks back around the kitchen doorway with an irritated look on her face. Gosh, her nose twitches when she’s mad!

Gazelle blinks in surprise, not having thought that Judy was even in her house anymore. Did she come back?

“I told you to stop calling me that. What do you want?” she mutters grumpily.

“Hey, Gaz and I were going to hit the town for a little while to clear our heads. You mind watching over the place? The tigers will be here with you,” he asks rather politely.

Well, polite for Duke.

“Uhh...sure, I guess? How long were you planning on staying out? I have work tonight,” Judy explains.

“Oh, no more than an hour or so. Just gotta get the blood pumping, right Gaz?”

She gives him an unimpressed look and lifts the front of her hoodie, exposing her missing internals and hollowed out chest.

“Oof, yeah, my bad. You see? I keep forgetting that you’re dead! No longer a symbol of beauty my scrawny ass!” he jokes casually.

Unprepared for the sudden flattery, Gazelle scrunches her face up and hides it from him. She had been so used to constant compliments about her looks, but being dead and super busy has taken a lot of her self esteem away.

Hearing him say she’s still beautiful is...nice. Even better that he honestly seemed to forget about her being a corpse.

She just hopes it says more about her personal upkeep and less about his intelligence.

He seems like a smart enough mammal.

“I don’t know, Duke...there is still a lot to do around here. The last few walls need to be reinforced, the air conditioning has been acting up, and there’s a nasty leak in one of the walls...probably going to be busy all day!” she tries to convince herself.

Duke smiles knowingly.

“Walls and AC got finished last night.”

She stares at him.

“But the pipe is-!”

“Already fixed.”

Her jaw opens in disbelief.

“Th-the drywall!”

“Went in without ripping the wall apart. It’s all done for right now. You have nothing to worry about,” he repeats with a wide grin. He’s loving every second of this and she knows it.

Gazelle gives him a firm glare as she taps her hoof on the kitchen table. He decides to be a bit silly and taps his paw along to the beat.

She catches on and lets out a groan of frustration.

“Okay! Okay! Fine! We will do your idea! But we will be coming right back, got it?” she demands. He gives an excited nod and scrambles his way back up onto her head.

“But how will you travel? They will eat you if they see you!”

He goes around her neck to the back of her hoodie. With a single shredding noise, Gazelle finally has use for her hood. Her horns stick out of the brand new tears in the fabric, with the eager face of a certain weasel peeking out from just under the top.

“That...is a stupid spot, Duke. They would still be able to see you!”

“From all the way up here? Nah, I’m good. And if anyone gets grabby, you can just poke their eyes out with your stabbies again!” Duke laughs as he squirms him into Gazelle’s hair.

She doesn’t know why she puts up with this weasel, but he’s never given her bad advice before.

Maybe a trip into the city would help her clear her mind…

Having a constantly changing battle plan echoing in her head has gotten very old.

“Fine…just...let me…” she stutters as she smooths out her hoodie to make sure that it’s covering all of her missing parts. The world might be full of mammals with similar injuries, but Gazelle still can’t help but feel self-conscious over her gaping chest hole.

Duke sees what she’s doing and drops the overbearing act for a moment to give her a small pat on the head. She flicks an ear in appreciation, which he bats at.

She smiles up at the little squirt and huffs.

“Well, then, this is your idea. Lead the way, you little headache,” she chuckles with a bit more energy.

“Okay, sounds good to me. But first, go grab your guitar. The acoustic one,” Duke orders her. She can practically hear his tiny weasel paws rubbing together in glee.

“Oh, no…” she sighs.

“That’s right! Nothing like some good ol’ fashioned busking to start the day!”

><><><><><><><><><

The early morning streets of Zootopia are bustling with undead mammals going about their day. To Gazelle, it’s a breath of fresh air to be able to walk among others like her without having to be worried that they might attack the survivors who depend on her.

Duke, on the other paw, quickly realizes how unprepared he is to be back out on the streets. The sight of so many husks lurking on all sides brings back countless bad memories of his numerous close calls. He had survived by the skin of his teeth for weeks on these streets, usually using the cover of darkness to stay alive. And even the time he traveled with Nick’s group almost ended in tragedy.

Outside of the helpers working in the mansion, Duke has had nothing but bad experiences out here. Every new mammal that passes causes him to freeze up like he’s about to be grabbed and stuffed into a pair of grimy undead jaws.

He can feel the crunching of his own bones rattling his teeth. It probably wouldn’t even be quick. He’d probably get grabbed by a mammal big enough to swallow him whole. He’d rot away inside an already rotting sack of black meat.

Gazelle doesn’t notice that her partner in crime is strangely silent. Normally, he’d be chatting her ear off about nothing until she eventually kicked him off of her head.

She’s too preoccupied with the sights and sounds around her.

Only a month ago, these streets were full of living mammals who were always too busy to stop and say hello, even to her. The animals were usually at each other’s throats, regardless of how much they had in common. The problem was especially bad between predator and prey species.

But now, even though everyone has been turned into walking corpses, they are much more civil to each other. Gazelle has never seen such a sense of community before.

A giraffe walks over her, having to limp along as another giraffe supports her. She’s missing one of her legs, but has her friend to lean on as they walk.

A hard-hat-wearing beaver with no arms tries to press the crosswalk button, can’t, and gives the offending button a furious pout. Luckily, a skunk missing half of her face walks up and presses it for him. He gives her a thankful nod and the two cross the street together.

Is this what has become of her city?

It died...but it came back as something new. Something harmonious.

Something special.

It almost brings a tear to the fallen pop icon’s eye.

“Is this a good place?” she asks the weasel on her head. Still shivering, Duke looks around and sees that there are a good amount of mammals around, though no one seems to be able to recognize her yet. He gives her a bop on the head to signal his approval.

“Ah, good. This guitar was starting to cut into me,” she huffs as she swings the instrument around and sets it on the sidewalk. There are a few other buskers further down the street, but she can’t even hear them from this distance. Her playing here shouldn’t draw from their crowds at all.

Gazelle finds the edge of a planter to sit on. It gives her a good view of the street around her, while also keeping her out of the way of those who are just trying to walk by. Nothing is worse than an irate commuter getting stuck in a crowd, especially when they’re already late for work.

Duke peeks out a bit to find out what she’s doing.

He sees the guitar being tuned below him and can’t help but smile. All it took to get his own private concert was a few supportive words and a day plan!

Not that he didn’t mean what he said earlier.

He just never thought he’d be sitting on Gazelle’s head while she performs for the mammals of Zootopia. For a weasel like him, it feels like he’s dreaming. His life wasn’t even lived that well up until now. What did he do right to deserve this honor?

As Gazelle plucks the first chord and opens her mouth to sing, the first few mammals start to take notice. They wander over to see what she has to offer, not realizing just who it is that they’re listening to. With her hoodie and sweatpants covering most of her, and with her hood shrouding her face in partial darkness, she’s hardly recognizable. One could easily mistake her for just another street performer with nothing better to do than beg for some cash in return for a few minutes of entertainment. 

The sounds that leave Gazelle’s throat are different than what Duke had expected. With her lack of recent practice, her voice is a bit rough around the edges. But with the emotion that she’s conveying through her words, the lack of refinement actually fits.

She sounds like she’s in pain.

Lyrics that tell about a deep sense of loss of who she used to be, though she doesn’t know if it’s just because of what she looks like now. She wants to try to be the icon she used to be, but doesn’t know if the public would even want someone like her anymore.

The crowd of onlookers grows quickly as she sings. Some of the other buskers stop their own songs to give this newcomer a listen.

This isn’t Gazelle the pop star. This isn’t the one who would tell someone going through a hard time to just ‘try everything’.

This Gazelle is one that hears the pain of everyone around her and wishes she could take it all away and shoulder it herself.

But she knows that she can’t.

And it kills her.

Her city died around her and she could do nothing to stop it.

If someone had stopped listening because of the depressing tone of her song, they would have missed the very ending, where she expresses a newfound hope for the future, and pride in the ones who moved along with the recent changes to make the best of them.

She loves that so many have been able to finally get along, even if it took the end of the world to do so.

Her song ends on a cautiously optimistic tone, bringing the mood of the entire audience up with her. She finally lifts her head all the way to see the scores of mammals gathered around to listen. When the first few mammals look at her facial features and see who she is, a furious murmur breaks out and spreads through the crowd like wildfire.

“It’s her!”

“Gazelle!”

“Has she been here the whole time?”

“Does she have an album?”

A few of the undead onlookers search around for a hat or other object to place money in. Since there is none, they just hold the money out for her.

“Oh, no, thank you, this is just-”

“Psst. Probably going to need that, Gaz. For the survivors,” Duke whispers to her from under the top of her hood. Luckily, nobody notices him or his advice to her.

Gazelle looks conflicted, but eventually accepts that she’s going to have to be the one asking for help this time. The empty guitar case serves as a suitable place to drop a few bucks and some coins. The crowd shuffles around, letting whoever wants to give her some money do so. As more and more cash falls into her case, Gazelle’s eyes water over with barely-contained emotion.

She’s so proud of her city.

All of these mammals have been through hell unlike anything anyone could have imagined earlier in the year, but here they are, helping someone like her get through her own tough time. She’s been doing her best to offer her help wherever it’s been needed for her entire life.

Accepting some in return is a brand new feeling for her.

On top of the positive reinforcement, this also is going to help a lot of animals back at her mansion. And she has her little friend to thank for all of this.

“Thank you, Duke…” she whispers up to him. He doesn’t want to make any more noise with so many zombies around, so he offers her a tiny head rub.

Gazelle’s attention is caught by a tiny little lamb hovering just behind the front of the crowd. She is smaller than everyone else around her, and is so meek that they probably don’t realize she’s there.

Is she trying to get through?

No, it’s more like she’s nervous about being seen, but really wants to push forward.

Gazelle’s eyes lock with hers. The tiny ewe bleats and almost makes a retreat.

“No, no, it is okay, little one. You can come,” Gazelle urges gently, offering her hoof out to her. The lamb realizes she’s being addressed directly and gets the nerve to finally push her way to the front of the crowd, right in front of the singer.

The mammals all look down at the little girl, unsure of what to make of her sudden courage.

“Well, hello! What is your name?” Gazelle asks kindly. She notices that the lamb is turned to one side, hiding the right side of her face for some reason.

The singer kneels down to level with the girl.

She holds her hoof out again. The lamb’s eye flicks between the hoof and the face of the one offering it to her.

After a few moments of hesitation, she lifts her own hoof and takes hold of Gazelle. A bolt of energy passes through the small ewe and makes her bleat again, but this time out of excitement. In doing so, she accidentally reveals the half of her face that she had intended to keep hidden.

Gazelle gasps slightly as she takes in the sight of the missing half of the lamb’s face. Or, partly missing half. The bone is still there but the skin and eye are long gone. The girl’s remaining eye looks up into the despair crossing over Gazelle’s face and immediately begins to tear up.

The singer sees how upset being seen is making her, and tries to think of something quickly to make her feel better.

Without a moment to think, she does the first thing that comes to mind.

She lifts up the bottom of her hoodie, exposing her vicious wounds and missing organs. The lamb’s eye is drawn to the sight and she lets out a tiny gasp of her own.

The entire crowd vocalizes their surprise at what has become of their once-perfect idol.

Gazelle cringes internally but keeps her gaze focused on the lamb, who truly needs the support in knowing that she’s not alone.

The little girl, against her better judgement, reaches a hoof into the chasm of Gazelle’s body and waves her arm around, trying to see if it’s just a magic trick.

“Gone!” she says simply, her face screwing up in confusion.

A few members of the audience behind her clear their throats to get her attention.

She turns her attention to the crowd, as does Gazelle.

One by one, the animals around them begin removing bits of their clothes that had been previously hiding hideous bites and wounds.

Missing legs.

Punctured eyes.

Broken jaws with hanging tongues.

Everyone around has something to show.

They’ve all been through hell.

Every wound is just as monstrous as the last.

But because of this, the shared pain becomes something beautiful. The lamb’s eye opens wide as she looks around her and realizes that nobody is looking at her for being hurt or different. Under their clothes and behind their masks, everyone's the same.

She’s not the only one being uplifted by the display of compassion.

Gazelle’s eyes, wide and watery, scan the multitudes of mammals showing their support for someone they don’t even know.

This is her city.

This is Zootopia.

The end of the world couldn't end the compassion that mammals are capable of.

In fact, it only increased it.

She hears a sniffle coming from under her hood and looks up with a smile.

“Mr. Weaselton, are those tears that I hear coming from you?” she teases good-naturedly.

“No! I’m just...she...oh, shut up!” he snips.

“No, I don’t think I will,” she comments, looking down at her guitar. A familiar sense of creativity is flowing through her body for the first time in what seems like ages. Her musical soul, once starved and overwritten with the need for action, glows bright once more.

“I don’t think I will…”


	33. Just Ahead

“GOOOOOAAAAAL!”

Corduroy rolls around the couch in celebration as his team scores again. This leaves them two points ahead at the end of the game, with pretty much no time for the opposing team to come back. Another victory!

Once the noise coming from the television calms down and Corduroy gets his elation out of his system, he rolls himself into Marian’s paw to signal that he wants to be picked back up. She does so with just as much grace as he’s used to from her.

She places him back on her lap so he can keep watching the soccer game being played live. It’s his favorite spot to sit. She’s nice and comfy, especially on the lowest remaining vertebrae sticking out of the bottom of his neck. He’s particularly sensitive about that one being touched, as it feels like a grinding tooth most of the time.

It always makes him cringe when it rubs up on something solid.

But Marian’s thighs are nice and soft on it.

He tries to give her a smile, even though she can’t see him. To show his affection, he leans into her arm until she moves it onto the top of his head.

Now it’s perfect.

A darker line of thought enters the decapitated fox, souring the pleasant mood he’s had. Not even the embrace of his mate can reduce the worry he feels.

“Mary...do you think Nick likes me okay?” he asks suddenly. Marian’s ears flick in surprise as she turns her head down to face him.

He has to ignore that her glass eyes are facing opposite directions.

“Why would you think he didn’t?” she asks, a sour look of worry reaching her face.

“I just...I don’t think I’ve been acting like a father at all. I’ve just kind of been doing my own thing with you...should I be trying harder?” he asks her. She offers him a knowing but relieved smile.

“Is that all you're worried about? Honey, Nicholas is in his thirties. He doesn’t need a father figure. What he wants is something who can make me happy, which you do!”

“Wait, his mid…” Corduroy mumbles, looking down at the floor in deep thought.

He thought Nick was somewhere in his early twenties!

Isn’t Judy?

He’s the same age as her son!

Oh, this is awkward. Their age never really came up, being zombies and all. Should it even matter, now that they’re dead?

It’s never been a problem for them before.

So it shouldn’t be in the future, right?

“What was that?” Marian’s voice snaps him awake. He looks up at her face and can’t imagine her being any more than forty.

But if what she says is true, then she has to be at least around fifty five!

She looks great for her age, that’s for sure.

“Uh, nothing, nothing…” Corduroy says quickly, trying to move on from the subject. His new fear quickly becomes her finding out that he’s young enough to be her kit. The thought of her setting him down and walking away from him forever would break his heart if he knew where it was.

Probably somewhere in the mall where he died.

Oof, what a mess that was.

Just screaming and waves of fleeing mammals getting caught and torn apart…

He remembers the large lioness who caught him. Such a pretty face, twisted into such a feral and furious expression. He could only see the side of her jaws for the few moments it took for her to clamp into his neck and shake him to pieces.

He thought she had let go at first when his vision was allowed some more freedom. But then he felt himself rolling around unnaturally easily. A passing glance at his headless body, with his dark green polo shirt covered with blood, was that last thing he saw before he expired.

When he woke back up again, he found that he had his teeth locked into the ankle of a panicking hyena of some kind. She was smaller than a normal yeen, so she was probably an aardwolf. Once he realized what he was doing, he let her go and watched in horror as she limp-ran out of the mall doors. How did he get a hold of her without a body? She must have not seen him there and got close enough for him to snap at her.

The mall around him at that point was still chaos, but the percentage of living was much lower than when he died. And stranger yet, some of the dead were sitting around and chatting about their recent turning. They were all so happy about it that he could hardly believe they were dead. A pleasant tingle tried to overtake his mind with blissful nothingness, but his missing body prevented the high from hitting him. He was just too upset over what he’d done to that poor girl.

While the others laughed and joked with each other despite their horrible injuries, Corduroy only wanted to leave the mall. He wanted to go home. Thankfully, he could still form words for some reason and managed to ask one of the other undead to bring him back to his home. They didn’t have anything better to do, and they were just too dang happy to deny his request.

“Uh...Gooaaaal?” he suddenly hears Marian half-heartedly cheering. He blinks awake from the memories of his demise and looks up at the television.

His team scored another goal to close the game out and he hadn’t done or said anything, which apparently had Marian worried about him.

“Y-yes, goal!” he cheers, though his mind just isn’t in it. She notices his lack of enthusiasm and gives him a worried nudge.

“Sorry, Mary, just thinking…” he sighs and leans more into her paw. She scratches his cheek just the way he likes.

“Is it about the wolf attack? I heard how much you were screaming...I wish you would tell me what happened,” she tells him in her kindest voice.

He recalls brief flashes of rolling over the attacking wolves, keeping them away from his blind mate with as much ferocity as one can summon from inside a large hamster ball.

So many flattened wolf bodies…

And his screaming was definitely not out of fear, it was much more of a maniacal laugh. He would never want her to see just how lost in the violence he was during the attack. Even the Alpha wolf had fled back to fight Gazelle instead of him.

“N-no, not the mansion...it’s nothing, okay? Just feeling cooped up, I guess. We’ve been watching television for the last day,” he tries to convince her. She chews on her lip thoughtfully at these words and turns her head where she can feel the late morning sun shining its heat down on her.

“Well, how about we go out?”

He turns his gaze up at her.

“Out? Like a date?”

She smiles cutely down at him and rubs his cheek a bit harder.

“Sure, why not? We haven’t had one in a while. Feels like a pretty nice day outside. Want to?” she asks him with her charmingly hopeful voice. It melts the tod’s heart...well, it would have.

“Of course, love,” he says with a warm smile.

“Let’s get your eyes straightened out first…”

><><><><><><><><><

Corduroy is bounced along inside the sling that Duke had made for him days ago. It’s pretty comfy and he’s quickly getting used to it. It’s a lot better than risking getting stomped on by the numerous larger mammals passing by. Even Marian has to be careful of any elephants missing their eyes, as they are prone to crushing those in their way. This requires Corduroy to constantly be on the lookout so that he can report any obstacles in their way for Marian to maneuver around.

Corduroy is pleased to see a pack of rolling heads inside of balls very similar to his back at the apartment. These new balls have flashing lights that are for both style and safety. They’re a lot more noticeable to any mammal who can see. Where did they get those?

Now he wants one.

Maybe one with a soccer ball pattern.

Or one in his team colors!

Corduroy squirms a bit in excitement, giving his mate very odd signals as where she should step. She almost walks into the road, but the tod is quick to realize his mistake and pull her back to safety.

He would never survive getting her killed.

He would sooner roll into traffic by himself.

The walk is pleasant enough, even if they don’t really have a destination in mind. Their few previous dates weren’t any more structured. Just being with each other has been enough.

Corduroy wants to change that.

He wants to take her to an actual lunch. Somewhere where she can get some nice food. He’s sick of constantly making her cook for them. And then she has to clean up after him anyway since the chewed food just drops out of his neck…

His ears droop down behind his head as he tries to come up with anything he can do for her that won’t have him needing to be cleaned up after.

Most restaurants might have an issue with cleaning the mess. What do the heads do when they need to go out?

Besides just running over anyone in their way.

Every place they pass has some sort of drawback that would keep him from wanting to try it.

Bug Burga? Cheap and easy but that’s no place to take a vixen on a date.

Salmon Ella’s? Looks like there’s a line all the way down the street of mammals waiting for a table. It’s not even noon!

Maybe the Daily Scoop? It’s early, but neither of them have had ice cream in awhile. Probably way before either of them turned. Would Mary be up for some? Maybe they have some new flavors to sate the new appetites of the undead.

“Hey, love, want something cold? Maybe sweet?” he asks cryptically. She slows her walk and turns her head down to him. The late morning sun shines on her like it’s pointing her out for the world to see. Is she some sort of heavenly creature, sent down to watch over him?

“Are you referring to ice cream?” she asks with a raised brow. He squirms from side to side excitedly, which is answer enough for her. She smirks down at him as she would an energetic child. With his newfound insecurity regarding their age gap, this look concerns him slightly. He doesn’t want to feel like a kit in the relationship, even if she has to carry him most of the time. And feed him...and pretty much anything that would otherwise require limbs…

Corduroy whines under his breath, unable to stop himself from cringing at how useless he feels.

He should be running around, playing soccer and exercising! Everything he used to do in his free time is now out of his reach thanks to his undead limitations.

But he can’t let her see how he feels.

It would just worry her.

And he’s supposed to be the one keeping her spirits high, not the other way around!

Corduroy swallows down his emotions and tugs his head in the direction of the Daily Scoop. Marian gets the hint and walks in the direction of the small establishment. It’s just a simple white building with the image of a cartoon sheep licking a towering stack of ice cream scoops. There doesn’t appear to be anyone in line, which isn’t surprising for the time of day.

The tod guides his vixen safely to the door of the shop and lets her know that she has to push and not pull. The bell chimes as they enter and Corduroy sees that nobody else is even eating in here. There’s also nobody at the counter.

This place is open, right?

He leads Mary up to the counter.

“Bell is right...there!”

She slams her paw down on the counter but misses the bell by a bit.

“Little to the left.”

She slaps a cup of spoons into oblivion.

“Too far, a little less.”

An upright menu is demolished mercilessly.

“No, never mind, other way. Now!”

The napkin dispenser is sent flying just as a younger maned wolf girl steps out from the back room.

“Sorry about that, can I-?”

She’s struck by the airborne metal box, and to Corduroy’s horror, her head plops cleanly off of her shoulders and rolls to the floor. Marian startles at the sudden noise of someone being hit and instantly knows that she’s at fault. She scrambles down to where she heard the sound of something falling and reaches around for the rolling object.

“Oh my cuss! Is she blind?” the maned wolf groans as her eyes regain their focus. Marian reaches for her, but is tapped on the shoulder by someone behind her. Corduroy looks up as far as he can and is stunned by what he sees.

The tall girl’s body is leaning down next to them and motions for Mary to back off.

“Step back, hun, I...I think she has it,” Corduroy says in amazement. How is she doing that? Her head is on the floor, but she still somehow has control over her entire body…

It’s just...moving around like normal!

This is awesome!

How is this-?!

With a casual motion that hints at it happening fairly often, the hostess grabs her own head, lifts it back up to her shoulders and clicks something back into place. And just like that, the headless has become whole once more.

“What just happened?” Marian asks nervously, having fallen back into her anxious habit of fiddling with her blouse. The hostess rolls her neck a few times, making more cracking sounds echo out into the small room. Marian cringes at each one, but her mate is too enthralled to care. It’s just some faulty neck bones! He has those.

“Her head fell off and she put it back on! Like it was nothing!” Corduroy gushes. The maned wolf glances down at the two as if seeing them both for the first time. Her eyes fall onto the fox’s severed head and her face lights up. She gives him a wink of understanding before walking back behind the counter to do her actual job.

“Don’t worry about it, happens all the time! What can I get you folks this morning?” she asks pleasantly. She tries to look at Marian, but one of the glass eyes has, once again, sunken down and off to the side. This makes the hostess shiver slightly, so she turns her focus to the fox who she knows can actually see. Strangely, she flips part of her long brown mane in front of her one eye and peers at him like she’s hiding something.

Corduroy tilts his head in confusion but shrugs it off in his own way.

He glances up at the hanging menu and scans the options. Lots of sweet stuff that he would expect the shop to normally sell. Anything new?

“Ooh Salmon Swirl!” he cheers up to his mate. This catches Mary’s attention. She gives a tiny lick of her lips to let him know that she approves of his selection. It’s a flavor they both adore, especially now that their tastes are much more strictly carnivorous.

“Two Salmon Swirl scoops? Or would you like to try them as smoothies?” the hostess asks casually, though her eyes remain locked on the tod. She’s starting to weird him out. What about him is so interesting to her? Or does she just think he’s funny because his body didn’t get back up with him? That’s mean…

Anything in a cup would be much easier for both Corduroy and Marian. A lot less dripping and leaking going on and Mary wouldn’t have to balance it blindly the same way she would have to do with a cone.

“Smoothies, thank you,” he answers, trying to keep his face from souring. He can’t assume that she’s being cruel to him just because of a look she’s giving him. That would be presumptuous of him and wrong on a few different levels.

Marian pulls out her pawbag and pulls some money out. He just hopes that she’s pulling from his supply and not from her own. He has no way to hold money so they keep both of theirs in her bag. He wants to treat her, not the other way around!

She holds down a few different bills for him to scan.

The hostess sees what’s going on and quickly offers to count the money herself, which Marian quickly accepts to. Once the smoothies have been paid for and made, the couple sits down at one of the tables where Marian can feel the sun on her face. She smiles when she gets to feel the heat from the sunlight and it brightens Corduroy’s day whenever he gets to witness it.

He doesn’t notice that she’s setting out some napkins for him to sip his smoothie over until she’s already putting him down on them. A deep sense of embarrassment washes over him as he realizes that she’s giving him the undead equivalent of a diaper. He knows that everything he eats or drinks leaks back out, but that doesn’t stop the urge to eat or drink…

He still can enjoy the taste.

But…

He hates that he is forced to make a mess whenever he wants to do so.

And here, in public, especially inside where another mammal is watching...he doesn’t want to shame himself this way.

Marian takes a few sips of her own smoothie, her face displaying a great sense of pleasure at how good it tastes. He envies how she can actually keep the drink inside her when she swallows. But he can’t blame her at all for his predicament. In fact, the happy look on her face is enough to lift his spirits a bit.

But then she reaches over and grabs his smoothie, moving it over to where she knows she set him down. Corduroy stares at the looming straw, hating that it has to be fed to him as if he was a newborn kit searching for his bottle.

He takes a deep breath, feeling the air moving from under him and up through his sinuses.

“Uh, no thanks, I’ll...I’ll just have it outside, Mary,” he tells her, trying to hide the shameful tone of his voice from her. She tilts her head, but doesn’t question him on his decision. It’s less of a mess to clean up. If they could find a nice grassy area to sit, he could drink away without having to worry about leaking everywhere.

The couple is suddenly joined by a somewhat-familiar face sitting down at their table with them. Mary jumps a bit at the sudden movement near her, and Corduroy just gives the hostess a baffled look.

She still has her eyes on him.

What is going on with her?

“You been away from your body for long, or…” she starts. The tod just raises a brow at her, unable to determine what she’s getting at. She sees that she’s not getting anywhere with this and quickly explains herself.

“Like...how long have you been separated from your body? I know how it feels, being headless and all. But if you know where your body is, and the turn was recent, we could probably do something about it,” she says down to him. She’s very obviously not talking to Marian at this point. It’s a two-way conversation in her mind.

Corduroy looks over and sees Mary with an awkward expression on her face, like she doesn’t know how to react to the strange wolf. She is being awfully forward about something, that’s for sure…

“Uh, no. First day turner, I guess. Body’s long gone,” he tells her. She shoots him a look of pity, but there’s also a certain deviousness behind it, like she’s being offered a chance at taking control of something cute.

“Aww, that’s a shame. If you would have found your body sooner, you could have reconnected it and been walking around this whole time. Like me!” she brags, showing off the seam in her neck where her head is barely holding on. But just like she says, her body moves around like nothing is wrong.

“That’s, uh...neat?” he offers, wishing she would just leave him alone with his mate.

“You know, if you’re not doing anything tomorrow...I’m not working. I could give your mother a break and show you what it’s like to be tall again,” she says over-confidently. Marian’s face screws up into one of pure rage. If she still had her original eyes, they’d probably be glowing red at this point.

The hostess doesn’t seem to notice, her focus firmly locked on the tod. Her expression is controlled and sultry, but her wagging tail betrays her true feelings.

“Mother?!” Mary barks out at the hostess. The maned wolf flinches and looks over at the vixen, who looks about ready to remove her need for a body.

Corduroy looks between them with equal parts confusion and panic.

Oh no.

“Uh...sorry, are you not?” the wolf asks with a nervous head tilt.

“OF COURSE NOT!” Mary yells back, forcing the hostess up out of her seat. She backs away from the blindly raging fox and takes another look at Corduroy.

“Sorry! He just looks a lot younger than you!” she argues back, though her tone is more fearful than combative. Mary is a sight to behold when she’s mad, especially when her glass eyes slide around like a rabid chameleon. 

“HE...he...what?” Marian stutters, her fury deflating and being replaced with confusion.

For Corduroy, it feels like his world is crumbling down around him. He only found out about their age gap earlier, and it’s already out of the bag for Marian now.

She’s going to find out.

She’s going to leave him.

He’s going to be on his own.

He would rather roll into traffic…

“He’s, like...twenty years younger than you, ma’am…” the hostess squeaks as she is sneered at. Marian doesn’t move for a few seconds. There’s too many thoughts running around her head to properly process in an already tense situation.

She tries to say something, but closes her muzzle.

Out of nowhere, she reaches up and slaps the maned wolf’s head back off of her shoulders, this time using enough force to send it flying into the back room. A chorus of crashing kitchenware can be heard the instant the head collides with something. Her body stumbles around, trying to move itself closer to the kitchen to reattach itself to its owner.

“Not so tall now, bitch!” she says with a rage that Corduroy would never have expected to come from her. She must be really upset with him. She grabs his head roughly and stores it in the sling, grabs their smoothies and quickly walks her way out the way she knows she came in before the hostess can find her head.

Corduroy is in a daze as she walks.

He does his usual tugging to let her know where to walk, but otherwise they don’t speak to each other. The mammals around them can practically feel the heat flowing from the upset vixen and give her a wide berth.

After a while of silent, seething travel, Corduroy glances over at a familiar field of grass. His eyes widen and he’s quick to tug Marian in the direction of the park where he had spent so much of his time helping coach the youth soccer team.

And there’s a game going on.

The same youth team he had coached…

Someone else is coaching in his place.

Marian almost stumbles over the off-road terrain, but quickly adjusts and follows the tod’s guidance down into the grassy clearing. He stops her at a place where he can watch the game going on without sticking out too much. They’re just a passing pair of observers…

The couple is quiet for a long time as Corduroy watches the game being played. Mary listens to the sounds of the undead youngsters running around, which seem to calm her down a good bit. She already knows where it is he’s led her to, and is glad he did so.

His team scores a goal and the remaining parents let out cheers for their respective cubs.

“Goooal?” Mary offers. They’re her first words in a good while. She doesn’t sound as pleasant as she normally does, but her voice still carries a hopeful tone with it.

Corduroy realizes that his team is just fine without him.

Marian would be better off without him, too.

He tries so hard to hold his emotions in. He’s done it for so long. Bottled in every sad thought and dark mood. But as he watches his passion being lived out in front of him while also knowing that his love will probably leave him, he can’t suppress it anymore.

Corduroy’s entire head shakes. He bites his lips together as wet tears trickle down his face. Mary notices the shaking, but doesn’t realize what he’s doing until something wet falls onto her paw.

“Corduroy, what’s wrong? Are you okay?” she asks worriedly. Her mate chokes himself trying to reign his emotions back inside. But they are overflowing at this point, his leaking eyes just the pressure release valve for everything he’s held in.

He tries to answer her with something that will set her mind at ease, but lets out a single choked sob instead. He curses himself for the lapse of control and nearly bites through his lips to keep them shut.

“Love, please...tell me what’s wrong,” she urges gently.

“I…” he chokes back another heaving sob. “I...I’m useless…”

“What? Why would you say that?”

“I...I c-...I can’t do anything! I’m just a head! I can’t work, I can’t walk, I can’t play soccer anymore, I can’t coach, I can’t feed myself, I can’t eat or drink without leaking everywhere, and now I can’t even be with you!” he screams in built-up agony. Marian is quick to hold the crumbling tod to her chest as tightly as she can.

A few tears of her own hidden fears leak out.

How long has he been holding all of this in him? She’s wondered how someone could lose so much but remain so constantly pleasant for her all the time.

He’s been in pain all along and just swallowed it down for her sake.

“Shhh shhh, it’s okay Corduroy, I’m not going to leave you…” she assures him over and over. Once he feels himself hidden in the safety of her fluffy chest, he lets loose and cries into her. Her frontside is quickly soaked with his tears, but she couldn’t care less.

“Yes you will!” she barely makes out. She moves him away just enough to speak with him.

“No! What gave you that idea?!” she demands through a few of her own sniffles.

“Because...because I’m too young…” he chokes out, looking up at her falling features. She nibbles a bit on the inside of her cheek but makes sure to stamp out his fears before they can consume him.

“Sweetie...we’re dead. We’re both deceased adults living through the apocalypse...why should a few years matter? We make each other happy...don’t we?” she asks with a trembling voice. She’s just as scared of him leaving her as he is of the opposite.

“But...I’m your son’s age…” he sniffles.

“I had Nick when I was very young...too young, but I will never regret him being born. I’m only forty-nine myself.” Corduroy blinks away some of the tears in surprise.

She’s not even fifty yet?

Then…

“I’m thirty-four…” he admits. He takes a breath, but lets it out without her supportive mood disappearing in the slightest.

“I will say, it’s a tiny bit weird...but...did you know?” she asks curiously. Corduroy doesn’t even need to think about this.

“No way. I thought you were a year or two older than me at most. For forty-nine, you look amazing, Mary. Seriously,” he smiles up at her.

She can’t hide the bashful smile that his words give her. Even without her eyes, the fact that he still sees so much beauty in an old corpse like her is more uplifting than the glass eyes could ever be.

“S-see? We’ve been happy since we met and our ages never came up. So, the way I see it...as long as we both want to be together...I mean, if you want to be with a geezer like me…” she chuckles nervously to hide her anxiety.

“I love you, Marian.”

She nearly feels her face ignite with a furious blush. He said it so easily and so firmly that she knows he is absolutely telling her the truth.

“I...love you too, Teddy Bear…” she nearly chokes up with how much love she feels for the little goofball nuzzled into her chest.

“Ooh, Teddy Bear. I like that!” he cheers.

Marian takes the initiative and leans down for a kiss. Her aim is dead-on the first time and the tod in her arms greedily accepts the affection. After a few moments with their muzzles locked together, she pulls away and leaves the tod licking his lips at her taste.

“Mmm salmon!” he says happily. She just rolls her glass eyes and sticks the straw of his drink past his lips for him to enjoy. He gulps it down happily, relieved that he’s able to just let the smoothie leak out onto the grass below him.

On the field, one of the cubs from his team scores one more goal to finish the game out.

“GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAL!”


	34. Bad Timing

For Gwen having been sheltered in a fortified farm for the majority of the infection’s duration, Nick is pretty impressed with how fast she is adapting to the mansion and its residents. She quickly learns that the white hazard suits are only worn by the undead helpers, so she stays far away from them. They don’t seem to mind though; she’s just one less bunny getting in their way as they’re trying to do their jobs for the day.

She fears them, but doesn’t bolt when one of them walks by her.

But as soon as she sees the first rabbit buck among the survivors around her age, all bets are off. Since Judy has been tasked with making sure nothing sinister enters the mansion, Nick is stuck having to pull the bunny away from every younger male she sees. The sound of her book opening to a random page is Nick’s signal that her shenanigans are starting up again.

What is it with her and her math problems?

The majority of the bucks she’s tried impressing with her skills in arithmetic have been nothing but confused so far. What was she expecting? These are survivors of an apocalypse that have been through more than she can possibly comprehend. Having a giddy doe running up to them, sitting down uncomfortably close to them and shoving a textbook in their face is not the way to get to them.

Nick doesn’t know how bucks would best be courted, but annoying them is a task doomed to fail.

He can see the weary looks they give her, even if they put up with her presence for a few minutes before making their escape.

The sound of the book opening again catches his attention.

With a tired sigh, the fox stands back up from his break and follows the sounds of her pencil scribbling like crazy. Just as he expects, she’s managed to track some poor bunny at his own cot, with another doe glaring daggers from behind her. A kit stares at the strange new bunny in confusion.

Oh, that’s not good.

She can’t tell the single bucks from the taken ones, can she?

Right before Gwen can get her ears yanked off by the approaching mate of the buck she’s harassing, Nick steps in and scoops the bunny up in his arms. The sudden motion startles the bunnies around him, who hadn’t expected there to be a sudden fox stepping in the way of the impending doefight.

Gwen squeaks and squirms around in Nick’s grasp, her heavy book flailing around wildly and almost knocking the poor tod unconscious.

“Sorry about her! She’s new to the place, hasn’t had a chance to learn the rules, yet!” Nick apologizes to the family of bunnies. The doe beneath him gives another glare up at her romantic rival, but huffs and nods at what Nick is telling her.

Nick carries Gwen off to the side and sits her down on a bench. He smooths his clothes down for a moment, and goes to say something to her. But she’s already wandering off somewhere to find another buck to pursue.

Why did Judy have to bring a sister back? And why did it have to be the book one? Any of the others would just mess with another doe and get into a fight, possibly learning their lesson quickly about keeping their paws off the locals. But Gwen is so persistent and misguided that Nick feels sympathy for her. He doesn’t want to see her get her little white tail kicked just because she’s starved for attention. She might deserve it at this point, but now Nick feels personally responsible for her.

Before she can bother someone else, Nick picks her up by the scruffs of the neck and carries her back over to the bench. Her legs are still moving like she thinks she’s walking.

Dang, how focused is this girl?

He sets her down once more and plants his paws firmly on her shoulders to keep her still. She blinks up at him and blushes, like she thinks he’s about to propose to her.

Apparently Judy isn’t the only Hopps member able to focus on one thing and go after it like it owes them money. It seems finding a mate is for Gwen what becoming a police officer was for Judy. But that doesn’t seem right, though. Weren’t most of the sisters just as crazy? Somewhere inside this bunny, there has to be something else she desires.

Some sort of dream that doesn’t involve procreation.

“Gwen!” Nick says down to her. She looks to the side, her eyes locked on a passing male. Oh come on, that guy’s not even a rabbit!

He snaps his fingers a few times in front of her to break her out of her thirsty trance.

“Gwen! Hey, Hopps! BOOK RABBIT!” he shouts, finally getting her attention back. Her expression is finally morphing out of lustful desire and slumps into a look of confused annoyance.

“What?” she mumbles quietly.

“You’re not here to get hitched to the first buck who isn’t scared of math!” Nick groans at her, trying to ignore the way she’s rubbing her book defensively.

“I’m not? Then why am I here?” she asks snarkily, a strange shift in her normal attitude.

“You tell me! You’re the one that wanted to come along so badly!”

“Yeah! To meet someone! You’re already taken, and there’s plenty of bucks here! Why do you have such a problem? What, are you changing your mind about Judy?” she argues back at him.

“I don’t know why Judy let you come here if all you’re going to do is annoy everyone. You’re supposed to be one of the smarter ones, right? Why not put that brain of yours to some use and try to help some of the mammals around here? They can definitely use someone like you,” Nick deflects, doing his best to not go off on the infuriating bun.

Upon being complemented for her book smarts, she quickly calms down and lets her combative exterior drop away from her. She’s not the kind of bunny to keep an argument going, anyhow. Just the few exchanges she’s had with Nick have left her mind buzzing with anxiety that will have her replaying their conversation for weeks to come.

She doesn’t like being disliked for stuff that’s legitimately her fault. Being hated for no reason is bad enough, but when she knows she’s being hated for a good reason, she breaks down.

It’s for this reason that she much prefers to stay out of most social situations that mind end up with her making dumb mistakes.

But it’s only been an hour or so since arriving at this new place and all she’s done is harass some traumatized bucks and get on Nick’s nerves.

Gwen sniffles and holds her book close to her chest.

Why can’t anyone else see how cool math is? It’s like infinite logic problems that can only have one clear answer every time. There’s no room for opinions in math. Everything has to make sense or it’s just wrong. If someone calls her out for the answer she got, she can go step by step to prove why she’s right.

But in an argument about her morals, she doesn’t know what to do. She knows what she wants, but she can also see the point of the other side. She can’t prove why she’s right if the correct solution isn’t just a yes or no.

She wishes everything could be like a math problem.

But they can’t.

And she knows deep down that no matter how desperate she might be to find someone for herself, Nick is right. The mammals around her haven’t had an easy time like she’s had back at the Hopps Family Farm. These animals are shaken, hurting and have seen things that no one should ever have to see.

Casual flirting and courtship are probably not high on their lists of priorities right now.

Plus she thinks that some of the bucks she hit on weren’t actually available. Was Nick protecting her the whole time from the wrath of the jealous does? That’s so nice. He really is quite literally something else.

Ooh, why did Judy have to snatch him up?!

He might be a fox and they’d never be able to have a family together, but still…

Nick would be great company to see out the last of what the world can offer. At least until the smouldering remains are finally extinguished forever.

“Okay…” she whispers up at him. Nick blinks down at her in surprise, not having expected her to accept his advice so easily.

“Uh, alright. Good, then,” he answers, unable to think of anything else to say.

“So...what should I do?”

Nick stands back up to his full height and places his paws on his hips. Looking around, he can’t really think of something for her to do right away. What can a prodigy mathematician do in a refugee center like this? Is she good with money? Maybe, but Nick doubts Gazelle would have any problems with money anyway. She probably has a team to help her with her finances already.

Maybe...wait, they’re still working in the underground gymnasium, right? The scientists and doctors from during Barry’s turning haven’t left yet, so they must still be doing experiments down there. Could Gwen help them at all? How far does her expertise extend?

“Hm. I have an idea. Follow me, but leave the bucks alone, got it?” he urges her. She gives him a nod and gets up with her book still clutched to her chest.

She takes in the sights as they walk through the mansion, admiring the size and luxurious nature of Gazelle’s residence. It’s messy and unsightly right now because of the defensive walls and security measures, but she can imagine what it used to look like.

They pass by a few more groups of survivors, Gwen keeping her word and keeping her math problems to herself. They even receive a few knowing waves now that she’s not pestering anyone.

Nick and Gwen reach the door that had been the escape route for every living being in the mansion during the Alpha’s ill-fated assault. It’s much more armored now, the door being made of thick steel and having multiple locks on it. It’s kept unlocked for now since there are teams still working downstairs, but it could be secured tightly in seconds in case of an emergency.

The sight of the numerous reinforced doors lining each side of the hallway makes Gwen nervous. She can tell that bad things have happened here not so long ago. What stories would these walls tell her if they could see and talk?

The mammals living here could probably fill her in.

Even Nick probably knows a lot more than he’s willing to recall. He didn’t exactly open up about the events preceding his trip to Bunnyburrow, but Gwen can tell that something has happened to him and everyone else that has them shaken to the core.

Just what has life in the city of the undead done to these poor creatures?

Judy seems pretty okay with being a zombie, but...the ones still alive definitely would rather turn themselves. What is it even like? Does being dead feel nice for some reason? The helpers in the white hazard suits seem pretty content with themselves. They definitely don’t act like they’re depressed or in pain at all.

This is the weirdest end of the world ever.

Nick pulls the heavy steel door open and lets her pass before closing it behind them. Gwen wasn’t feeling too sure about entering a basement during a zombie apocalypse, but luckily the lower level is just as illuminated at the main floor. It actually seems slightly brighter, since there are no windows and every inch of the room has to be lit with bright fluorescent lights.

As she descends the stairs, she’s shocked to see that there are dozens of animals working down here, separate from the survivors. They’re all wearing white suits, but some of them are missing the head coverings. Are they still alive? What is everyone doing down here?

They reach the bottom of the stairs together, with Nick having to take an extra few moments to gather himself. The last time he was down here, he had to witness a young life being snuffed out before his eyes, just for it to spring back as something unnatural. Barry seems fine now with what he is, but Nick knows that he is still hurting under the surface.

The memory of Selena crying against his chest shoots another bolt of pain through him.

No kits or cubs should ever go through anything that horrifying.

He follows after Gwen mindlessly, lost in his own thoughts. She can tell where he wants her to go, since the groups of scientists make up the only signs of interest in the room. Everything else is just an empty exercise mat and some mirrors on the wall.

They arrive at the workstation and Gwen stays a good distance away, her social paranoia firing up again. The numerous coated mammals glance her way, but don’t pay her any mind once they see that she’s just standing there.

Nick looks around, not exactly sure who to talk to. Who was the doctor that worked with Barry when he died? He tries to look around for her but she isn’t immediately visible. He knows that she’s an undead llama or something but her name escapes his memory.

Gwen takes a few steps closer to a chalkboard with numerous numbers and symbols written all over it. The scientists seem to be arguing over the equation being examined, with half of them trying to claim that the math is correct and the other half saying it’s not.

Before Nick can stop her, Gwen walks up, scans the equation and points to the number in question. She looks down, grabs an eraser and wipes away a few of the numbers that she deems incorrect. The arguing mammals stop as they notice the newcomer and watch her work her way through the problem again.

Nick is lost as to what is going through her head, but the others don’t seem to be stopping her. They move themselves into a group around the bunny, observing her changes with focused interest. She reaches a spot where she doesn’t exactly know what they were aiming for, so she has to ask.

What follows is a seemingly endless conversation going on among the brightest minds in the mansion. The terminology they’re using is mostly lost on Nick, and the breakneck pace they’re moving at is far too fast for him to keep up at all.

Their words become nothing more than white-noise for Nick.

Everything they’re talking about is so far above Nick’s head that they might as well be in space. He takes a few steps back and lets the bunny do her thing.

It’s rather heartwarming, seeing how in her element she is when she’s allowed to lose herself in her math. She’s barely even the same doe anymore. Her voice is louder and more confident, her posture is upright instead of slumped and she seems much more alert about her surroundings.

Nick notices that one of the doctors happens to be a living buck barely out of high-school. He probably didn’t even get a semester into college when this all happened. He doesn’t look as experienced as the mammals around him, but he follows along with Gwen’s explanations without any visible issues.

Uh-oh.

Is she going to get distracted again?

The buck says something to her regarding one of the numbers on the board. She turns to look at him, but doesn’t fall back into her flirty ways. Gwen simply answers his question and then turns her attention back to the board.

Well, she seems to know what she’s doing.

Finding a place for her here was easy enough, Nick supposes. He still wants to talk to Judy about the choice to let her come at all, though. Gwen might be one of her sisters, but the undead bunny needs to remember just how much danger the living are in when outside of defensive perimeters.

Thoughts for later, after Gazelle gets back and Judy is relieved of her duty outside.

The fox makes his way back up the stairs and rejoins the main level of the house. Just as he’s walking back to the lobby, where the survivors are resting, he sees a familiar pop star practically skipping by him. She’s dressed in very casual street clothes with an acoustic guitar case sling over her back.

She might not be dressed to impress, but her overall mood is much brighter than the last time he saw her. Was she just taking a break to relax for a bit? Well, whatever she was doing, it seems to have worked. Is that Duke sticking out from under the top of her hood?

He should ask the weasel how he’s doing sometime. They haven’t talked in a good little while now.

Yep.

Mhm.

…

…

“Oh, crap!” Nick barks as he remembers that she’s the one he’s been needing to see. He takes off after her, luckily catching her just as she ducks back out of her room, now missing her guitar.

She blinks down at him with a pleasant smile.

“Oh! Welcome back, Officer Wilde. I was not expecting to see you back so soon! Did you change your mind about helping us?” she asks curiously, trying not to laugh from the tickling sensations shooting down her neck thanks to her weasel hat.

“No, well, I mean...I’m here to help, like I said before. But I won’t be staying. Can’t leave Judy like that, it’d break both of our hearts.”

Gazelle nods along to his words as she walks. The fox keeps pace with her as she heads back to the kitchen to meet up with her second in command. They are supposed to be receiving a call from the survivor camp in Sahara Square, and Gazelle doesn’t want to miss it.

“I respect your decision, Officer. You want to help as much as you can without giving up what you still have left to lose. I understand this. It might not seem like much, but your offering will still help the future of your species, even without you there to see it. Now then, let me just check in with Tabatha, then we can get you set up. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d still like for you to give more than just a single cup. A few weeks worth would be much better, if you could find it in your heart. You can stay here or return to your apartment if you’d prefer, just as long as we get enough to use. Would you be okay with this?” she pleads, though her tone is far from desperate. Her good mood must be carrying over.

“I...I guess? If I can just stop by every day or so to drop them off, I could probably keep going for as long as you’re stationed here,” he answers, a bit bashful from the intimate nature of the discussion.

“Officer Wilde, this is my home,” she chuckles. “I will not soon be leaving it...I hope,” she mumbles the last part under her breath so that Nick can’t hear her.

He nods and gives her a small smile of his own.

Something snickers under her hood and Nick gets the feeling that their private conversation wasn’t actually all that private.

Gazelle leads Nick into the kitchen, where Mrs. Thistle is sitting with her phone held tightly to her ear. Her head is hung low and her posture is tense. Nick can tell right away that something is wrong.

“I’m back Tabatha! How have-...what is wrong? Did something happen?” Gazelle’s posture becomes more urgent when she notices the grim look that Thistle shoots her. The battle-scarred cat peers up at her friend and lets out a great heaving sigh.

“We weren’t able to contact Yax for the last couple of hours. I told some of our scouts to check it out, and…”

“And what?” Gazelle demands.

“The Mystic Spring...it’s gone,” Thistle says with a furious growl. Gazelle stumbles back a step as the news washes over her.

“Th...no...wh-what do you mean, gone? Is the building no longer there?”

“No, it’s there, but it’s empty now...the scouts reported multiple fallen undead, with wounds appearing to be from actual firearms. All of the survivors...they’re missing,” the large cat clarifies.

“Their defenses were outstanding! How did they get through?!” Gazelle yells as she slams her hooves down on the kitchen table. Duke is almost thrown from her hood.

“That’s the other thing, Gazelle. There were no signs of forced entry. All the fighting happened from the inside. I...I think Yax let whoever attacked them through the gate.”

“That doesn’t...why would he do that?” Gazelle asks, more to herself than her partner.

Thistle glances up and leans back in her chair, her paws visibly shaking with both anxiety and rage over the allies lost in the attack.

“Gazelle…” the cat says, her voice trembling. The owner of the house meets her icy glare and she knows that she isn’t going to like what she is going to hear.

“I think it might have been the Refoundation Society.”

“...Why?” Gazelle inquires weakly.

“Besides for giving us the constant runaround and acting suspicious as hell? They’re probably the only ones that Yax would let inside without contacting us first,” Thistle explains.

Gazelle’s entire body feels like it’s died and turned all over again. The chill that spreads throughout her body is enough to clear away any of the pleasant feelings that busking had brought her.

“...How long ago was the attack…?”

“At least a couple of hours,” is Thistle’s reply. Gazelle slowly backs up out of the kitchen and enters the hallway, seemingly stuck in a trance. Duke looks down at her with concern, not liking how out of character she is acting.

Nick, having been listening to this exchange, understands that something bad is about to happen. He just doesn’t understand how little time he has to prepare himself.

POP

A gunshot rings through the air, drawing the attention of every mammal in the mansion. All heads turn towards the front door.

POP POP

The color drains from Nick’s face as two familiar screams reach his ears, both coming from outside the building.

One of them is no doubt from Selena. Nobody else can scream like that.

However, the other isn’t a scream he’s heard in a long time. But he knows it intimately.

“JUDY!” Nick shouts in panic as he races for the door. He’s stopped in his tracks when another sound catches his attention.

A ferocious roar, unlike any sound he’s heard before, erupts from just outside the door and rattles the building to its foundation. Every resident in the mansion has to cover their ears as something nearly deafens them all.

There’s something outside and it’s not happy.

That’s when the sounds of violence begin.


	35. Under Siege

The moment that Judy sees the fairly recent festered bite mark on the polar bear cub’s arm, she knows that it’s him.

This is the young one she inadvertently killed. She didn’t mean to, but her careless actions had caused it. If it hadn’t been for her warpath leading the wolves all the way to the mansion…

This poor cub would have still been alive.

What kind of future did she rob him of?

How many cubs of his own might he have had one day? The implications of her past actions are just now hitting her in their entirety.

Besides for his mangled arm, he doesn’t look that bad for a zombie. He is wearing a grayish blue hoodie with a white and blue striped shirt on under it. Coupled with a pair of thick fuzzy shorts, his attire is clean enough for him to pass as a living mammal.

If it weren’t for the bite mark and his dark, sunken eyes, he would appear perfectly healthy.

Judy snaps awake when she notices that he’s looking right back at her with an uncomfortable look on his face. Not only that, but Finnick, Bianca and Selena are looking at her as well. If she had to guess what was going through their minds based on their expressions, she’d assume she had grown two more heads.

Has she just been standing there staring at him for who knows how long?

From their expressions, she guesses that she has.

What a way to introduce herself to someone she accidentally got killed…

“Yes…?” the cub asks, sliding a bit farther away from the strange bunny. He can tell from her scent that she’s undead like him. But her outward appearance is actually very life-like. He can’t even tell where she’s been bit.

Who is-?

“Judy!” Selena squeaks when she regains her composure. The little tan and white bunny wiggles herself from the hug pile and runs up to Judy to...give her a hug.

She sure is full of hugs this morning.

And not just from her best friend.

Judy blinks at the sudden affection, still feeling that she’s far away from deserving it. The kit gives her a squeeze before shying away with a bashful look on her face.

“S-sorry…” she mumbles as she rejoins her group. Judy gazes over the collection of individuals, wondering what they’re all doing outside together.

“What’s up, Fluff?” Finnick grumbles in his classic casual way of speaking. It’s long since stopped being surprising or intimidating.

“Oh, you know, just...seeing what’s happening. Gazelle went out for a break or something and asked me if I could keep an eye on the place. She- oh, wait. There she is, walking up the driveway. Guess I’m free now!” Judy chuckles awkwardly. The cub gives her a raised brow but offers a nod anyway. 

All heads turn to watch Gazelle being escorted back up the path to the door by one of the tiger guards. Her posture is so much more lively than it was before. What did she get up to when she was out?

The group’s only clue lies in the guitar strapped to her back.

As she enters the mansion again, Judy feels that her watch has ended for the day. It was only a couple of hours, so she still has plenty of time to get back to the apartment and prepare for work.

“Sooo…” she starts, trying to sound as casual as she possibly can. “I don’t think we’ve met before, little guy. I’m Officer Judy Hopps, ZPD. How are you today?” 

The cub brightens up a little bit at the more natural direction she’s taking their interaction. He lifts a paw out for her to shake, not realizing that it’s the one that had a wolf sticking out of it not too long ago. Judy accepts the shake with an awkward smile.

“I’m Barry. Figured you must have been Sal’s favorite cop by the way she ran up to you!” he chuckles pleasantly. “Normally I’m the only one she does that to. I was worried she was trying to cheat on me.”

Judy and Selena both shoot him surprised glances, with Selena’s being more a pout.

“Was not!”

Her face heats up when she realizes how defensive she sounds over it. She pulls her ears over her eyes and hides, as is customary for her.

The others laugh lightly at the exchange. Judy is surprised to hear Finnick’s actual laugh. It’s not the taunting one he gave Nick when she hustled him. This laugh is much softer and more caring.

“Don’t worry, Barry, I wasn’t trying to steal your girlfriend or anything! Just doing what I can to make the world a better place...not always successful though,” she admits.

Selena gapes up at Judy in horror.

“We’re not-!” she squeaks indignantly.

“It’s fine, I forgive you!” Barry quickly accepts, giving the bunny a nod of understanding. Judy smiles weakly at him, wondering if he would be so friendly with him if he knew that she’s the reason he’s dead.

“So whatcha guys got going on out here? Something wrong with the inside of the house?” Judy asks curiously. Finnick barks out a single sarcastic laugh and turns away.

Bianca gives him a soft head bop and resigns herself to being the one to tell her. To do so, she wraps her arms around Barry and pulls him back against her in a protective manner.

“We were discussing things, and...if we can work it out somehow, Barry has agreed to stay with us,” the vixen purrs happily.

“Stay with? Like…”

“As our son,” Finnick clarifies. “At least until we can find his actual parents.”

Barry hears this and flinches back like he’s been struck. The cub wants to say something so badly, but chooses not to in present company. Maybe it’s a conversation for private ears only. Bianca notices this and shoots him a concerned look, which he tries his best to shrug off.

Selena’s face twists in pain, but she forces herself to remain quiet about it.

“W-woah! Really? That’s awesome, you guys!” Judy cheers honestly. She remembers how much the two wanted to be able to be actual parents, and judging from the look of contentment on Barry’s face from being hugged, they’re already doing a good job.

“Wow, I really missed a lot around here, didn’t I? I just wished I could have help-!”

“Hold on, shush up!” Finnick demands suddenly. Judy stops what she’s saying and watches his large satellite ears flicking from side to side. The fennec is at full alert for reasons unknown.

A small growl rumbles in his throat.

Judy’s heart feels like it skips a beat somehow.

POP

Finnick ducks just as something zips past his head, just missing a spot that would have silenced him forever. The group scrambles back from where the sound had originated. Judy’s wide eyes and tall ears get to work located the source of the sudden danger.

It doesn’t take her more than a second to see the glint of sun flashing her way from inside a bush at the very edge of the property. She knows right away that it’s some sort of optical.

And the sound had been from a gun.

Shooting an actual live round.

Someone is shooting at them!

“Up up up! Inside, hurry!” Judy orders the mammals around her, her vision locked on the assailant. They don’t seem to be moving or taking any more shots, but she can see that they are tracking the group’s movements. Something is keeping them from firing a second time.

Bianca reaches to grab Selena, but Barry already has the small bunny wrapped in his thick white arms. The four mammals run as fast as they can towards the safety of the mansion door, terrified at the thought that they could be fired upon at any moment.

Judy notices that Barry is outpacing them at an unusual rate. His eyes are glowing red as he runs and the look on his face is one of pure determination. Finnick is having a harder time keeping up so Bianca grabs him and holds him to her chest, allowing the two to cover more precious ground.

The bunny cop glances to the side to see a group of tall mammals in black gear cutting their way through the defensive fences. Her eyes go wide as she sees one of them aiming at her group through the chain links with what she immediately recognizes as a military grade rifle. Only the most highly trained and experienced members of the ZPD are allowed to wield such deadly force. How did these animals get their paws on them?!

There’s the same bulky optic on top of the gun as the one that had fired at Finnick.

What is...is that a thermal scope?

Barry is almost at the door, his paws cracking the ground under him with how much force he’s exerting just to give himself some extra speed. He wants to cry with how scared he is, but he doesn’t have time. There’s a terrified bunny in his arms that needs to get to safety and he’s the only one who can get her there quickly.

Selena hides against his chest, shivering uncontrollably. With her hearing, the sound of the gunshot has her ears ringing. Combined with the rapid motions happening around her and the unknowing of what will happen to her, she’s too overwhelmed to speak or react.

Barry reaches the door and sticks his paw out to yank it open.

POP POP

The first shot leaves a dent on the metal door cover before pinging off in a different direction.

Selena looks up at her protector just as his head is jerked to the side. A few chunks of something fly off of him and hit the door in front of them.

Barry goes still, standing with the door knob in his paw. Selena’s eyes widen as she sees the chunk missing out of the top of his head. The cub’s eye lazily turns down to her, trying to portray something to her that his mouth can’t form. He chokes on the little air left in his lungs.

Judy, Finnick and Bianca freeze behind the cub as they witness the bullet tear through him.

They can’t move or speak.

All they can do is watch with wide eyes as he sways from side to side.

Selena’s brain finally catches up with what her eyes are seeing above her. Her brother’s eyes lose their focus just as his legs wobble and give out under him. The cub slumps to his knees, his paw going limp and falling away from the door.

Selena screams as loud as she can, even with her voice still sore from her earlier nightmare.

It’s a piercing sound that Bianca knows too well.

The vixen’s eyes water over with agony and rage.

Finnick is about to explode.

Judy covers her mouth with both paws and screams louder than she’s ever screamed before. It’s even louder than when she was being mauled by the tiger the day she died. The sound leaving her mouth doesn’t even begin to portray just how much pain she’s in from seeing the innocent cub gunned down in front of her eyes.

Another sound joins the numerous voices penetrating the air.

Judy looks around as a roar echoes over the hills, the source getting closer at an astounding rate. Before the intruders can comprehend what is happening, five massive orange bodies tear over the nearest hill and fly straight at the group of assailants.

The armed attackers arrived in an armored van of some kind. And just down the path, along the road, a line of busses are parked off to the side. There’s a lot of movement visible inside of them, hinting at many more bodies being held onboard.

Judy can hear one of the attackers shout out a warning regarding the tigers charging at them, but it’s far too late. With Chadwick leading the pack, the dancers-turned-bodyguards reach the intruders and get to work tearing the opposing force apart.

Finnick and Bianca break out of their own vengeful urges and look back to their son. Barely able to hold themselves together, the two bolt forward and do what they can to lift the heavy cub up and off of the bunny kit. Selena squirms out from under him, looking unharmed.

He must have purposely slouched over her, in a way that wouldn’t squish her.

Even with a piece of his head missing, he thought of her first.

Selena’s screams are mixed with traumatized sobs now as she tries to help the two adults drag Barry’s limp body into the mansion. A pair of dark brown paws reaches out to help them.

Nick!

Suddenly, Judy realizes that it’s not just their group in danger. Every single mammal in the compound is at risk, including her fox and her sister. She needs to help!

She hates herself for being absent for the last attack.

But this time, she’s throwing her hat in the ring and fighting back.

A few screams catch her attention and she turns to watch as Chadwick throws one of the gunmammals through the windshield of their own armored van. Was that bulletproof glass?

Ouch, that had to hurt!

He turns to the bunny and sees her questioning look. She wants to help! The tiger doesn’t even consider it. A single shake of his large orange head is the only answer she receives. He points his massive arm at the entrance to the mansion and shouts something in a different language.

Judy’s nose twitches in confusion, prompting an irritated growl from the guard.

“GET INSIDE, RABBIT!” he shouts, loud enough for her to hear him. She startles a bit at his tone, but nods and follows his command. Before she closes the door behind her, she sees the tiger’s fur rippling with impact marks.

More gunshots reach Judy’s ears just as the door clicks shut and mutes the sound coming from outside the building. Another roar can be heard, followed by four others joining him in unison. The rabbit cop looks behind her with wide, terrified eyes.

She has to take in the sights around her all at once.

Finnick, Bianca and Selena are gathered over Barry and trying to find any signs of life coming from him. Finnick is able to keep his eyes dry, but Bianca and the kit are too far gone into their emotions to form anything close to coherent thoughts.

Nick is breathing heavily and staring at her like he’s seeing her for the first time. He wants to be happy that she’s okay, but the tension in the air is keeping his attention split between his bunny and the danger coming from outside.

Gazelle sprints over just as the door shuts, her eyes wild with fear. Judy’s gaze meets hers and the hostess feels a familiar sense of dread watching over her.

Not again.

Not so soon.

POP-POP-POP

POP

Gazelle flinches as the sounds of gunfire continue. Judy yelps and backs away from the door, just in case any of the bullets happen to break through the reinforced doors. Luckily, the metal seems to hold strong. They must be using smaller rounds.

“Who is out there?!” Gazelle demands.

“I-I don’t know! They came out of nowhere, dressed in black body armor! They have vans and guns and busses down by the road!” Judy recalls as quickly as possible. Gazelle’s face falls as she hears this.

“Were they alive…?” she asks weakly, her knees starting to tremble. Judy struggles to recall, since they were almost completely covered by armor. But she does remember a strange scent in the air after the first hit from the tiger team.

Fresh blood.

“I...I think so…” Judy mumbles up at the petrified leader of the mansion. Gazelle’s mouth closes tightly and she mulls something over in her head. The spirit of the musician inside her vanishes and is replaced by a cold, calculating tactician.

“Down,” she orders simply as she pulls her hood down, exposing the trembling form of Duke Weaselton. He gives Gazelle a forlorn look, but she isn’t even looking at him.

“Now.”

He obliges her and scampers down sadly, feeling his friend quickly drifting away from him. He had just managed to make her so happy, too…

Mrs. Thistle jogs up behind her and taps her on the shoulder. Gazelle spins around and locks eyes with the big cat. Thistle can tell right away that this isn’t a misunderstanding and that her suspicions were correct.

“The Refoundation Society is here,” she says firmly. Thistle seethes with fury, but nods and walks back to the kitchen with Gazelle in tow. Before they leave, Gazelle turns to the masses of survivors watching her with bated breaths and shouts out her commands.

“TO THE BASEMENT! YOU ALL KNOW WHAT TO DO! WE’VE BEEN THROUGH THIS BEFORE, VERY RECENTLY! KEEP YOUR FAMILIES WITH YOU AND DO NOT TRAMPLE ON THE SMALLER MAMMALS!”

The crowds listen intently and move to follow her exact instructions. It definitely helps that they’ve had to do this only nights earlier. Tension fills the air and the fresh trauma from the last attack can almost be tasted lingering in the air as everyone works their way down to the same safehold as last time.

At least they know that additional reinforcements have been added this time.

“Oh, Judy,” Gazelle grabs the bunny’s attention. “Do you have your phone? Or something you can contact the ZPD with?”

Judy’s eyes shoot open in realization.

“Yes! Yes, hold on!” she squeals as she slides her personal phone from out of her pocket and navigates her way through it.

“Make sure to tell them that they’re going up against actual firearms!” Gazelle shouts. Judy knows this already and continues working to contact her coworkers. She might not be equipped to fight against armed and armored assailants, but she knows a team of mammals who definitely can.

“Officer Wilde, can you help get the cub downstairs? The medical team must see him right away!” is the last thing Gazelle says before she disappears into the kitchen with Thistle. Nick nods and looks down to the poor polar bear laying on the ground at his paws.

His heart sinks when he sees the section of missing flesh on top of his head.

These poor youngsters…

Yet again, Selena is reduced to tears as she tries shaking her brother awake. Nick can’t stand the sight of her losing him again. It’s just like the first time he passed, minus the promise of waking back up again.

Bianca is inconsolable, her face buried in the cub’s chest as she wails.

Finnick looks stuck between helping his cub and yanking the door off its hinges to go kick some living ass with the tigers. Nick can’t see the bat yet, but he can feel its presence looming in the air around them.

Without someone to guide them, nothing will get done.

It looks like Nick will have to be that someone this time.

Being bigger and stronger than the three mammals under him, he reaches down and carefully wraps his paws under the shoulders of the fallen cub. He hauls as much of the cub up as he can, barely managing to lift him off the ground. The others stare up at him in surprise, trying to figure out why he would dare move him.

“Hurry! We have to get him to the medical area downstairs!” Nick barks, his voice strained by how much effort it’s taking to keep his knees from collapsing from underneath him. Finnick is the first to join him, ducking under Barry’s legs and supporting some of the weight. Bianca breaks out of her misery enough to help as well, and Selena follows along like a lost kit.

She can’t really help, but there’s no way that she’s letting Barry leave her sight. The empty look on his face disturbs her greatly, but she can’t see him as anything other than her brother. Just minutes earlier, he was running around, as lively as ever, doing everything in his power to keep her safe.

There’s not a force in the world that could pry her from him at this point in time.

Nick gives Judy a passing glance, seeing that she’s busy yelling out details of the situation to who he can only assume to be Chief Bogo. She’s heated, so there must be some confusion on his end as to how severe this situation is. The undead in the ZPD might not take the living being turned as seriously as Nick does, but there’s no way they can ignore an armed raid on a millionaire's mansion. Hopefully, if Judy knows what to say to him, Nick might be seeing his boss soon enough. He hasn’t been to work in almost a month, and even with sick leave, he might not actually be employed anymore.

Oh, well. Things to worry about later. When the world stops falling down on his head.

The fox’s group carries the cub along the hallways at the very tail end of the survivor procession. Once again, Nick finds himself one of the last ones to enter the door to the basement. A few of the helpers offer a pitying glance down at the wounded cub, having known him from the previous attack.

He was the only living casualty, after all. And the youngest of the undead in the mansion.

The sight of him with a hole in his head only makes their thick, black blood boil with rage. They’re been attacked yet again, and this time the assailants aren’t even their fellow undead. For some reason, living soldiers have descended upon them.

Why?

They’ve been doing nothing but helping the living!

Why are they being shot at for their efforts?

After Nick and his group make their way down the steps, the helpers shut and lock the door behind them. Duke squeezes his way through their feet as he makes his way back up to the door and goes through the motions of bolting the door shut, just like last time.

“Hey, Judy is still up there!” Nick calls up to the weasel. Duke stops for a moment, unsure whether he should wait or go ahead and hope for the best. There’s no telling how fast the new attackers will be able to get through this time. They have actual gear and firepower this time, compared to the strictly melee-based wolves.

Luckily, the door opens right after this and Nick’s bunny jumps her way down the steps to join him. He gives her a relieved expression and watches as she takes her place under Barry’s side to take just a bit more weight off of Nick’s back.

Duke, glad he doesn’t have to make such a hard decision, quickly does his job. The sound of the drill fills the air as Nick and his loved ones carry Barry over as quickly as they can to the medical area. As they pass the swarms of surviving mammals, a few of the youngsters see what has become of the cub they shunned out of their group. A few shameful looks are cast his way, though they do nothing to help him.

The scientist and doctors are surprised to see that their work area is once again filled with hundreds of mammals lining the walls. They don’t act irritated by their sudden arrival, though; if everyone is down here, then something bad must be happening upstairs.

Again.

This time, Nick sees the one he’s looking for right away. Her wooly head towers over the others, giving her a clear view of the cub being brought her way. Dr. Packard takes immediate action, getting the nurses under her command to prep a table for the undead youngster.

Judy makes eye contact with Gwen, who is backed away from the commotion and is sitting next to a younger buck while she watches everything happen. They’re not touching and the book isn’t out.

Gwen tries waving Judy over to explain what’s going on, but then her eyes fall over Barry’s still, disturbingly empty form. She lets out a tiny gasp and clamps her paws over her mouth to keep herself from screaming. The horrified white bunny leans over to the buck and buries her face in his chest. He wraps her in a comforting hug, his own eyes looking far away into nothingness.

He was here for the last attack.

He wasn’t at all ready for the same tension to hit him again.

The fact that the cub on the table has suffered a bullet wound is not lost on him. He can’t quite hear what’s happening above them, but now he has an idea. And with that idea, his imagination is left to run wild with every possible outcome of a firefight.

Nick’s group helps set Barry’s body down onto the table and are quickly pushed away.

Except for one.

Selena is unwilling to move from his side, and the doctors remember enough of her attitude from a few nights back about trying to touch her. Those bunny teeth of hers are plenty sharp enough to sever fingers.

Being small enough, they set her on the tail end of the table so that she can maintain contact with her brother without getting in the way of the doctors trying to help him. She latches onto his leg and becomes a bunny padlock. Nothing short of bolt-cutters can remove her now.

Dr. Packard looks down at the same cub she had seen only nights earlier. Her face falls as she takes in his condition. She wants so badly to do what she can, but health science for the undead has only gone so far. There hasn’t been enough time yet for them to know what their true limitations are.

She reaches a hoof down and rubs his cheek gently, wishing she could take his pain away. He’s been nothing but brave in the face of danger, yet has had nothing but bad luck so far. Why is the universe so dead set on hurting this poor cub?

Not to mention the weakly whimpering bunny at his paws. Packard doesn’t remember seeing the bunny without tears streaming down her face.

The undead alpaca sighs and steels her face.

Regardless of what the injuries appear to be, she must try. For the sake of herself, for the undead around her, for Barry, and for the bunny. She doesn’t have much experience dealing with undead brain injuries, but hopefully there are some things that can translate between the living and the undead.

“Okay...here we go…” she tells herself, signaling for her nurses to close in.

Just outside the medical area, Nick watches with worry. He knows how much Selena, Finnick and Bianca have been through. Losing Barry for good could very well destroy them each in their own way.

Judy places a paw on his side and startles him back a few steps. When he sees that it’s just his bunny there giving him a concerned expression, he tries to calm himself. He sinks down into a chair and holds his head in his paws, trying to process what just happened.

Why are living mammals attacking them?

He just...can’t think straight. Maybe he’s just imagining all of this. What a time to arrive back at the mansion, huh? But maybe his presence is for the best, since Judy is here now. Her connections to the ZPD could potentially save hundreds of lives.

Speaking of which…

“What’s going on up there…?” Nick asks weakly, his eyes still locked on the space between his paws. His tail sags limpy behind him, not moving an inch.

Judy moves closer and places her paws on each one of his shoulders supportively.

“We got help on the way,” she says softly, bringing the only spoke of hope that Nick has felt since the first gunshot entered his ears.

“I sure hope so…” Nick mumbles as he peers up at the trembling forms of his brother and his mate, both foxes watching with bated breath as their adoptive son is worked on by every available doctor who is qualified enough to operate on the undead.

And Selena...she looks dead to the world.

For her sake and the sake of every mammal who holds Barry close to their heart...Nick hopes that Dr. Packard can pull a miracle out of her wooly butt.


	36. Loose Ends

Barry knows this place.

It’s the same black oblivion he had barely dipped his paws into when he died from the infection. Last time, it spat him back out like a bat out of hell, but this time, it’s trying to slowly pull him down into its depths.

All around him, he can hear echoes of memories replaying all at the same time. Random noises get louder and fade away like they’re passing him in time. He can hear the familiar voices of his parents, their violent screams shooting off at each other like always. He wants to hide away with his book like he used to, but the sound fades soon enough.

It’s replaced with a voice he loves. Selena’s sarcastic tone flows through him right before he can hear her laughing about something he told her. What was the joke again? It’s too fuzzy to recall, but he definitely remembers her squeaky little laugh. It always makes him feel so warm inside when he gets to hear it.

At least, it used to…

His own internal monologues from the multitudes of the books he’s read can be heard coming from all directions. It’s like he’s listening to every single story at the same time. But for some reason, a lot of the thoughts are broken and fragmented. What happened in here?

Something feels warm on his leg.

Wait, where is his leg? He can’t tell.

But wherever it is, something warm is touching it.

He hears Selena’s voice calling his name from the distant corner of the inky blackness. Finding the strength to move closer, he does. It’s a strange feeling, sliding around in the endless nothingness without walking. He feels like he’s floating. Is he floating?

Nothing makes any sense in here, but he knows that the closer to Selena’s voice he is, the better. She sounds sad. Why does she sound sad? Did something happen?

He really wishes he could wake up and make her feel better. He doesn’t like when she cries .

Barry keeps moving until the sound of her voice is all encompassing. Everywhere he turns, he hears her voice. And oddly enough, he also hears some strange static sounds. Flashes start illuminating the blackness around him, briefly lighting up the area. In the few brief glimpses, he can actually see that the blackness isn’t just nothing. There are threads of some sort hanging every which way, floating loosely like they’ve been recently severed.

Barry floats close to the last thread he managed to see. As soon as he gets close enough, he feels a segment of a memory pass through him.

Something about being by himself in an alleyway in Savannah Central...how did he get there? Why isn’t he in Tundratown? Isn’t that his home? He can feel the tattered backpack strapped to his shoulders. He...remembers this, but he knows there’s more to it. But where is it?

A tingling sensation fills him and draws his attention to somewhere in the distance.

Another flash and the area is once again illuminated. He sees a particular thread in the distance that calls out to him without actually making any noise at all.

Somehow, he knows that it’s the right one. The ends of the two threads should fit together perfectly!

Barry finds a way to grapple onto the first end and pulls it along behind himself as he floats over to the other thread. Reattaching the two ends is as simple as sticking them into each other. Just as he thought, the shredded ends fit right back together.

Suddenly, he’s back in the alleyway. It’s night time in Savannah Central and he just snuck off of the same train he had snuck onto to get here. Everything is bright, big and overwhelmingly hot, even at night. Despite how uncomfortable it is, he knows that he can’t go back. He finally managed to get this far and there is no way he will give up now. He just can’t let anyone see him. The alleyway will serve as a good enough refuge for now, until he can maybe find someone to take him in without asking any questions. He’s too young to work a job, but maybe they’ll believe he’s older because of his size.

He just hopes that the mammals around here aren’t used to seeing polar bear cubs. Otherwise he’ll be discovered and turned in in a heartbeat.

He sees so many strange mammals walking by, some of them smaller than him but a lot of them larger than him. Luckily, they don’t pay any attention to the trembling cub huddled against the stone wall of the alleyway.

Alone and scared, but also relieved beyond words, Barry settles in for his first night outside of Tundratown. He feels a bruise forming under his thick white fur, but tries to ignore it. They can’t hurt him.

Not anymore.

Barry feels himself drifting back into the blackness, which isn’t quite as black anymore. It flashes more frequently and never settles into the same inky nothingness as it had been earlier.

So he ran away from someone who hurt him. Savannah Central became his home for an uncertain amount of time. Who was he running from? Why did they hurt him?

He reaches for another loose thread and feels himself running. Running, but not like the last memory. This time, he’s really running, like his life is on the line.

He tugs himself urgently over to what he knows is the other half of the memory and snags the two ends together quickly.

He’s not the only one running. There are thousands of others filling the streets with him, screaming so loudly that Barry can’t even hear the thumping heartbeat in his ears.

Way behind him in the crowd, he hears more blood-curdling screams and what sound like shredding clothes. They’re getting closer to him!

He tries to run faster, but a fat rhino taking up half the street waddles into his side and pushes him over. Barry spills to the ground just as a pack of undead monsters leap onto the giant meal to bring him down together.

Barry narrowly avoided being taken down as well. He yells and scrambles away from the main crowd. He looks behind him and sees that the smaller road through the alley is practically empty. Taking his chances, he breaks off from the stampede and jogs to the other side of the block.

There’s a line of stores and businesses here that have already been cleaned out. The cub can’t see any living or dead here. It should be safe, right?

Being as sneaky as he can, he slinks from one corner to the next, keeping an eye open in every direction to catch any signs of danger.

Just as he’s passing by a dentistry for smaller mammals, he hears the most head-splitting shriek he’s ever heard before. He doesn’t even consider ignoring it. He’s through the doors and up the stairs in a flash. Everything inside is eerily pink and bubbly, a contrast to the numerous bloodstains lining the walls and floor.

What happened? He can’t hear the shrieking anymore...is he too late?

The same scream nearly deafens him again, proving him wrong. He’s able to follow the source of the noise all the way to a waiting area.

His blood runs colds when he sees two feral-looking adult rabbits struggling to upend a couch. The screaming continues as the heavy piece of furniture is slowly shoved away from the way, exposing the hiding spot of whoever is shrieking so loudly.

Barry rushes forward and acts.

The next few seconds are just pure instinct on his part, and he doesn’t recall exactly what he does. But his memory starts back up again as he’s running down the stairs and out the door with a petrified looking bunny kit held tightly in his arms. She looks up at him like he can’t possibly be real. There’s no way, in her eyes, that she was saved from the jaws of her own undead parents. She must be dead.

She has to be.

But here she is.

In this stranger’s arms, after he summoned enough strength to throw both of her parents backwards. This stunned them long enough for him to grab her and make his escape.

The sight of her face looking up at him in wonder is one he never wants to forget. The memory fades out as he’s forced back into the backness. It’s actually more of just a dark grey now, with the flashes happening more and more frequently.

There are very distant sounds.

More voices?

These don’t sound like memories.

Maybe if he connects more of the threads, he’ll figure it out. Is that what this area is?

Is this a giant puzzle of some kind? He can definitely go for a puzzle! Puzzles are his second favorite pastime, behind reading, of course.

Barry flies back and forth, connecting the loose ends with their partners. Every time he completes a thread, a new memory is opened up to him.

His most recent birthday spent alone.

The first time he ever ate fresh fish.

His first time visiting Icy Lake with his school.

His first book.

Catching a boot instead of a fish. Who even wears boots?

His parents yelling so many times.

The numerous animals offering him some food during his time as a runaway.

His first time seeing a mammal getting mauled by a zombie.

His bunny friend’s loud snoring that he desperately tries to muffle to keep them from being found.

The look in Selena’s eyes when he’s reading her a story out loud.

The look of sympathy Gazelle gives them while offering them safety.

Settling into their cots, defying the norms and sticking together despite their difference in size and species.

Watching the furious little kit chase a larger buck around the room for trying to take her dessert.

Everything from the past week, leading all the way up to the tiny chunk of hot metal tearing a chunk away from his head.

Barry is exhausted from flying around for so long. Eventually he didn’t need to rely on the flashing lights, as the area around him had grown bright enough for him to see the thousands of loose threads flowing freely in the nonexistent wind.

By the time he’s caught up to his latest memory, the room around him is almost blindingly bright. The sounds around him that he knows to be voices are much clearer.

Selena is crying again.

Why?

There is someone else whose voice he remembers, but he’s had only a few interactions with her so her identity isn’t immediately obvious. But she sounds sad as well.

Something bad is happening outside and he wants so badly to go out and help. There are still the last few threads to fix, though.

He does so with his remaining energy, making sure to connect them just as accurately as he has been for who knows how long.

Upon reconnecting the final thread, Barry is blinded by the brightest light he’s ever seen in his whole life. Something sucks him back at a breakneck speed and he sees all the reconnected threads fade into the distance.

He wants to scream, but he has no mouth. He is forced to let the suction pull him back up to where he had once been. The blinding light grows, but becomes blurry. A black outline forms around it.

The light gains some detail.

And with that, Barry opens his eyes the rest of the way and looks up at the operating light hanging above him.

><><><><><><><><><

“Why did you stop?”

Dr. Packard looks up wearily at the small kit glaring at her. The alpaca, still shaking all over, slumps onto her shoulders and buries her face in her hooves. After an hour of trying everything she could to find any signs of life in the cub, she ended up just telling her nurses to tend to anything else they can find while she finishes up.

Without a pulse, she just didn’t have any way of telling if anything she did was working. After doing what she could to clean the wound and patch him back together, she had to admit to herself that there was nothing further for her to do.

She hates it.

The cub wanted to live so badly. His turning was something unlike anything she had ever seen before. His bond with the bunny triggered some sort of reaction in him that prematurely ended his feral mindset. Even before they gave him the test vaccine, he had already pulled himself down from insanity for the sake of his friend.

Even if she was alive, Packard wouldn’t have the heart to look up into the bunny’s eyes to tell her that Barry is gone.

For good, this time.

Whoever is currently raiding the mansion decided to end this poor cub. Someone who posed no threat to them and was loved by others. Why him? Was the cub just the widest, biggest target? He was probably running away. He had to be, judging from the place where the bullet entered his head. They shot an unarmed cub trying to flee in the back of the head.

If they manage to break their way down here, Packard plans to give them a special piece of hell in return for their actions. She might be covered in wool, but she could still tear a head off if given the chance. And she’ll make sure not to bite, too. They don’t deserve to come back.

“Why did you stop?!” Selena demands again, pounding her paw into the bed next to her. Packard sighs and glances up sadly at the irate rabbit.

Her face is soaking wet.

Again.

Why does she always have to hurt?

“Sweetie, I...I’m sorry…” she says. Before she can say anything else, the kit’s eyes open wide. Packard is stunned silent by the empty look spreading across her face. She would expect more anger or crying to come next, but Selena doesn’t move or make a sound.

The sounds of misery are instead coming from the panicked couple sitting off the side, waiting to see if their adoptive son would pull through. The two foxes are latched to each other, unwilling to separate for even a moment to see how Selena is doing. They had only been his parents for an hour or so, but they still loved him. They already had.

He was such a good cub…

Finnick’s bat is held out already, his fist trembling with furious bloodlust. Guns or not, he’s going to crack at least a few skulls before he’s taken out. He has to. For his mate, his brother and everyone else in this mess.

Bianca is just lost at this point. Her mate is the only thing keeping her tethered to the planet. If she lets go of him, she very well might drift away into space and never come back down.

Dr. Packard lowers her forehead to the cub and gives him a farewell head bump. She offers him a quick prayer and rubs the white fur along his neck softly. She hopes that wherever he is, he knows how sorry she is for failing him again.

If they had done something about that vent, the wolf would never have been able to bite him, and he wouldn’t have gotten shot…

The alpaca lets out a trembling breath and looks back up to say something to the bunny. To her surprise, the kit is nowhere in sight. She glances over to see if she might have rejoined the two grieving foxes, but she’s not there either.

Where did she…?

A distant scrambling noise catches her attention and she looks over to the same wall that the cub had been fatally bitten.

It sounds like...claws on metal.

A metal grate had been installed over the vent, but it was meant to keep out something large, like a wolf. There was just enough space for a tiny bunny to squeeze through.

Packard’s eyes shoot open as she realizes where Selena has gone. The alpaca removes herself from the table and runs to the vent with as much speed as she can. Finnick notices the sudden movement and looks up as she passes. His eyes follow her all the way over to the vent.

“SELENA!” she screams into the dark metal ducts. “GET OUT OF THERE!”

Finnick feels what’s left of his world drop away. He knows just from the context clues that the bunny ran into the vents to escape the gymnasium, using the same route that the wolves entered through. There has to be a let-out somewhere where someone her size could surely exit.

He pulls Bianca off her chair, having to support most of her weight. She stops crying and gives him a tired, confused look. He jabs his paw in the direction of the doctor, trying to spit out what’s so important.

His lips refused to cooperate.

Bianca looks up just as Packard calls out the bunny’s name again with less than satisfactory results. The vixen’s eyes go just as wide as her mate’s when she figures out what is happening.

She just lost a cub!

There’s no way she’s losing a kit!

Her legs catch the ground underneath her and she takes up running with her own power. They reach the grate covering the vent, where the doctor is struggling to pull the bars away. They know that the door to the basement is sealed and guarded. If they’re going to go after the bunny, they need to use the same path that she did.

Duke did a great job of assembling the metal bars together. Even with Finnick, Bianca and Packard trying to pry the cover off, it doesn’t budge. This is surprising in that they all know how much stronger they became upon turning.

What mythologically dense material did Weaselton make this out of?!

Because of their combined grunting and sounds of strain, they can’t hear the creaking of the table behind them. A few steady steps don’t catch their attention until a shadow falls over them from behind. Bianca notices first and jumps back, expecting to be chastised for their efforts to sabotage the defensive grates. But she immediately slumps to her knees when she sees the large white body staring past her.

Packard turns around next and lets out a frantic shout that doesn’t know if it wants to be terrified or overjoyed. She settles on shock and stumbles away from the newcomer. This allows him to move closer to Finnick, who is the last one still trying.

He’s pulling as hard as he can, the fury of being unable to help coursing through his small body. Just as he goes to bite the bars as a last resort, he feels a large paw place itself on top of his head. Finn spins to bite whoever is touching him, but freezes when he sees the blank face of his late son staring back at him.

Ignoring the tears streaming down his face, Finn darts forward and wraps his arms around Barry’s neck. The bat clatters to the ground and is left forgotten. The fennec’s body shakes uncontrollably, his capacity for emotional control far past his limit. He doesn’t care who sees him, he needs to let this out.

And for a moment, the polar bear cub lets him.

Finnick looks up to say something, but chokes up when he sees the bright purple glow emanating from the cub’s eyes. His face is oddly vacant and there’s a disturbing trickle of what looks like steam rising from the ugly patchwork that the doctor was able to do where the bullet had passed through his head.

Something new is happening.

Barry is showing them another first and they have no idea what to make of it. But the cub doesn’t let them take the time to process this new development.

He reaches his large white paws down and wraps them around opposite side of the vent cover. With barely a grunt of effort, the cub yanks the entire cover off, bits of wall getting torn out with it. The others watch with amazement as the cub tosses the heavy metal guard off to the side and enters the vent. He doesn’t hesitate for a moment. He’s too fast for them to keep up with, but they certainly try. Even Dr. Packard finds herself crawling her way through the ductwork, the sounds of gunfire getting louder and more frequent the closer they get to the outside world.

What is going on out there?

><><><><><><><><><

Selena doesn’t care anymore.

Her brother is dead.

For good.

Her parents might as well be dead to her. She can’t live with them while she’s alive.

So maybe she should die, too.

She’s tired of living in constant fear and she’s tired of having others getting hurt for her.

All the bunny wants is to find the son of a bitch who killed her only friend and hurt him. She doesn’t care how she does it. Even if she has to chew the armor off of one of them and bite his face off, that’s what she’ll do. Does blood taste good? The undead seem to like it a lot.

As she reaches the end of the duct, she sees that the damage outside from where the wolves got in was never fixed after the first raid. The metal vent is bent open and mangled, just wide enough for wolf bodies to fix through. Her body is miniscule in comparison, which lets her pass easily through to the outside world. The noon sun is shining over the hills of grass, but she can’t focus on it.

The constant popping of gunfire is too deafening.

It draws her attention and holds it. She can’t see what’s happening on the front of the property, yet. She flinches every time she hears another bullet being fired, which basically leaves her a trembling mess. Regardless, she peeks over the hill and spies the fight going on for the first time.

She’s astounded by what she sees.

Dozens of armored mammals are pinned around a few of their vans, taking shots back at crowds of equally armored ZPD SWAT members. Two orange bodies are laid out on the grass around them, their undead lives having been extinguished. Three other orange bodies are held behind the line that the ZPD has managed to create. At least a dozen of the assailants are lying motionless on the ground around the vans, but they all seem to be breathing or moving at least a little.

Selena can hear multiple voices shouting out both commands and curses. They’ve been out here just firing back and forth this whole time?! Over what?!

The bunny feels her body shivering with pent up rage.

Before she can stop herself, she’s marching over to the armored attackers with a fierce scowl on her face.

She knows it’s stupid.

But this is why she’s here.

She doesn’t care how many bullets fly by her, some missing by only a few body-lengths. To keep herself from bolting in the opposite direction, she forces her focus to remain locked on the attackers ahead of her.

They’re getting closer and closer now. She can see that they’re mostly taller mammals, but there are a few smaller ones trying to provide medical attention to their fallen comrades.

So these mammals are living…

How do they do so without a brain?

Her temper flares and she uses her most versatile tool that she knows she has.

Her voice.

“STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!” she screeches out, her voice startling the groups of mammals taking cover behind the armored doors of their vans. She’s able to startle even the ZPD members located at the bottom of the hill. Her voice can probably be heard from the next continent over with how much effort she’s putting into her scream.

One of them turns their gun on her and takes aim, their finger already teasing the trigger.

Another one with a much more authoritative posture turns and sees what’s happening. They look through some sort of camera at her, their body jerking to attention when they see something that Selena is unable to.

“CEASE FIRE! SHE’S WARM!” a deep female voice belts out. The militants around her slowly follow her order, giving her uncertain looks. The one aiming at the kit lowers his gun hesitantly, letting Selena take a relieved breath.

“What are you doing out here?! Quick, get into the van!” the supposed leader orders, waving the kit over. Selena scowls at her and ignores what she’s being told.

“Which one of you shot the polar bear?” she asks. The armored mammals look at each other in confusion. In the background, all of the gunfire has stopped now, even from the ZPD. It’s eerily quiet in the hills, allowing everyone around to hear what the kit is saying.

“What?! Kit, this isn’t a game! You need to get behind cover! Get your little ass over here!” the leader screams again.

“WHICH ONE OF YOU SHOT THE POLAR BEAR?!” Selena screeches. They all flinch back again, her voice able to hurt their ears even through the padding of their helmets. One of the mammals off to the side gets fed up with the bunny and lifts a paw to the sky.

“Yo!” he barks irritably. Selena’s eyes lock on him and she’s off like a bullet. The militants raise their rifles instinctively at the sudden motion, tracking the bunny’s path with their sights. Before Selena can do anything even more reckless, she’s picked up by the scruff of the neck and yanked back.

“EEP!” she squeals as she is pulled back into someone’s grip. She squirms around to bite at whoever is keeping her from her suicide mission, but her body freezes when she sees Barry’s softly smiling face looking down at her.

She gazes up in shock at him.

It occurs to her that she was probably shot just now, and her brother is welcoming her to the afterlife. She is okay with this, as long as he’s here with her.

The bunny sniffles and smiles widely up at him before wrapping her arms around his neck.

“HUSK! HUSK! TAKE IT OUT!” someone shouts. The leader is quick to override that panicked decision with one of her own.

“NO! YOU’LL HIT THE KIT!” she urges, jumping in front of the few soldiers under her command who had already prepared to fire. They flinch and lower their weapons away from their superior officer, dreading what might have happened if they had pulled the trigger.

The leader looks back at the two young ones, not believing what she’s seeing. The kit is hugging the undead polar bear cub with all of her might, and isn’t getting torn apart for it. The cub looks frightening, with his mangled arm, stitched up head and glowing purple eyes, but he doesn’t appear to be posing the slightest threat to them.

“Uh...what now, Ma’am?” one of her teammates asks in confusion.

She doesn’t answer right away, too astounded by the two little ones embracing each other in front of her. Her eyes have to be playing tricks on her. Maybe the thermal was wrong and the bunny is also dead? She did charge at them, after all…

“Wilson, give me a temperature reading,” she mumbles to the mammal next to her. He peers through his scope at the hugging couple and reads out the number to her.

The bunny is definitely alive.

Wait, she’s crying! Is she hurt?!

No, those...are happy tears.

The leader yanks her helmet from her head and tosses it off to the side, letting her short white muzzle air out for the first time since their raid had started. She sets her firearm down and uses both of her paws to rub at her stubby white fox ears.

“Just...cease fire, guys. I...have to think…” she mumbles to her team. They look at her in disbelief.

“What about them?!” one of the militants demands, pointing down at the ZPD, who are peering over in confusion at the entrenched attackers.

The arctic fox huffs and stares at the way the bunny kit is snuggling the ever-living crap out of the polar bear cub holding her. It’s so unnatural that she just can’t process it.

But she can’t deny that what she’s seeing is real.

It just shouldn’t be.

If it’s real, it means that she’s caused the deaths of many mammals who might have actually posed no threat to the survivors she’s been rounding up.

Without saying anything else, the fox strips herself of her gear until she’s down to her undershirt and shorts. Her team watches with horror as she walks around the corner of the van, waving her arms in the skye to show that she’s unarmed.

A few guns from the undead SWAT team are aimed her way, but no one dares fire. All eyes are on her now. The hundreds of survivors in the numerous armored busses watch as the leader of the convoy walks her way down the hill towards the ones she was shooting at minutes earlier.

“WE SURRENDER!”


	37. Brains

“Hold it!”

The top half of a very muscular water buffalo dressed in a clean blue uniform turns to the doctors standing at the door. Like himself, the doctors are already dead and cannot catch anything from him. He uses his arms to walk a bit closer.

“What is this about?” Chief Bogo asks the mammals, who all might have been shorter than him at one point, but are now comfortably eye level with him.

“Sorry, sir, Gazelle’s orders,” one of them says while holding a syringe up to him. “Any undead coming from the outside must get this to make sure you don’t lose it around the living.”

“Nobody told me about this!” he booms, his brows creasing in anger. The tallest doctor, a male snow leopard with one arm, pulls out a slip of paper and hands it to the buffalo. Bogo has to lower his torso to the ground to use his hoof to grab the paper.

“Gazelle said you might have a problem with it. She said to tell you, in her own words, to ‘stop being a baby buffalo and deal with it.’ That’s actually all this paper says,” the doctor informs him. Bogo looks like he’s about to shout up a storm, but the doctor is quick to anticipate this.

“She signed it,” he says simply.

Chief Bogo looks down at the broad signature covering a portion of the bottom of the page. His mouth shuts as he tries not to geek out over the very thing he's been trying to acquire for years. The ones online are always obviously faked. But this one is for real. He’s at Gazelle’s house and he’s got her signature!

In spite of the gunfight, Bogo is glad that Hopps called him for help. She might have greased him up with the fact that she was at Gazelle’s house, but he would have come anyway. Regardless of who it is, he will not tolerate this level of violence in his city.

Even if the ones being attacked are looking pretty tasty right about-

“OWW!” he grunts as a needle is forced through the back of his neck. Within a second, a strange burning sensation fills his head and sears its way through what’s left of his body. Everything turns bright purple for a moment before the color adjusts back to normal.

He’s too stunned to react right away. But when he finally snaps out of it, he pulls himself back into his fists and gets ready to shout the offending doctor to death.

The doctor sticks the paper in the Chief’s face again, forcing him to reread what Gazelle has written.

“What. Was. That?” Bogo demands slowly through gritted teeth. The snow leopard expertly seals and disposes of the spent syringe with his only paw.

“Anti-feral vaccine, basically,” the doctor shrugs. Bogo lifts a brow and lowers himself back down the ground again so he can rub the spot where the needle went in. Why did he feel that? He hasn’t felt pain since he turned, so why now?

“What does it do?” the water buffalo asks.

“Pretty much what I said. Reverses the chemical in that rotting brain of yours that drives you to consume flesh. As a side-effect, you are going to lose whatever protections the infection caused.”

“Like...pain relief?”

“Bingo.”

“It’s Bogo. Chief Bogo,” the bottomless buffalo corrects. The doctor stops what he’s writing for a second but doesn’t look up. After processing the level of stupid that just struck him, he goes back to writing.

Bogo huffs and looks to the interior of the mansion. Contrary to what the outside might look like, the inside is quite a bit more...industrial. While he was expecting his favorite singer’s residence to be pristine and a model of luxury, the heavy metal plates bolted to every door and window and making him feel more like he’s in a prison.

Or a modern fortress.

As one of his other officers is stuck with their own needle, Bogo makes his way to the kitchen, where a large table is set up and some of the guests for the evening are already sitting. He walks along on his fists, trying to appear anything other than pissed off.

He knows that he’s going to have to try to talk civilly to the very group he spent the better part of the day trying to suppress. They hadn’t taken out any of his officers, but he knows they did kill a couple of the tigers who had been guarding the property.

So, rightfully, the one with the most sour look on their face is the pop idol herself. Gazelle is glaring daggers at the arctic vixen sitting at the other side of the table. The leader of the Refoundation Society, or at last the leader of this specific team, maintains a firm but casual expression as she waits for things to get started. A few of the militants are sitting next to the vixen, their armor still latched securely to their bodies. They don’t even take their helmets off at the table. They must not trust the undead yet.

They are right not to do so. If Bogo wasn’t on the clock, he would...he would…

He smells the familiar scent of warm, living flesh, but for the first time since turning, he doesn’t get the urge to leap forward to sink his teeth into it. He isn’t even hungry at the moment. What is going on? Bogo stares at the breathers with a bewildered expression, trying to comprehend this new development.

They are alive.

That’s good, isn’t it?

Why...why did he want to eat them? They’re living beings just like he used to be. He’s been craving meat for the last month now, but why? He’s hurt and turned a good amount of mammals, even the ones he was supposed to be helping.

The water buffalo climbs up onto one of the chairs and settles his torso comfortably into it, thankful that the seat is wood and not cushion. He wouldn’t want to leave black stains all over Gazelle’s furniture.

It’s here that he comes face to face with a mug he hasn’t seen since the outbreak began. Officer Wilde is sitting at the table with them, his posture tired and slumped. But what’s really surprising is how not dead he is. Bogo can smell the scent of living fox from where he is.

Wasn’t this fox on medical leave? Bogo assumed it was for some sort of body repair, maybe after being torn apart. He’s lost a few officers that way, and seeing Nick in one piece makes him feel conflicting feelings.

On one side, he’s happy that the fox is up and around. Alive, even! It looks like he’s been through a lot, but he is undeniably still in good health.

On the other side, he’s not hurt at all. He’s been squatting at home for a month while he lets his partner do all the work?

Speaking of Judy, she is sitting snugly next to him.

Intimately close to him.

He has his arm around her.

What rabbit hole has this fox fallen into now?

Nick turns to his superior officer and flinches slightly at the buffalo’s sudden appearance. Perhaps he wasn’t expecting to meet his boss so soon? His grip on the bunny tightens a little and she turns to see what he’s looking at.

Her face lights up upon seeing him. Bogo’s scowl disappears just a little as he watches the rabbit waving her little arm up and down in rapid succession.

She’s certainly happier to see him than the fox.

A tall undead alpaca with brown wool is also seated at the table, though her attention is turned to the young ones sitting next to her. Bogo glances down at the tykes, surprised to see that the cub who he saw from a distance earlier is accompanied by a living bunny kit.

What sort of madness is going on in this mansion? The living and the dead, occupying the same building, sitting next to each other and nobody is getting turned?

Bogo takes an unnecessary but satisfying breath. He doesn’t need to, but doing so feels more natural all of a sudden.

The cub’s eyes are still glowing purple and there’s still a tiny trickle of steam rising from the stitches in his head. The bunny kit at his side is looking around nervously, obviously put off by the sudden guests. Though she looks like she wants to bolt, she stays right at the bear’s side.

The bear himself has a pleasantly empty look on his face, like he’s content but not really processing everything going on around him. Something seems to be wrong with him, and from the look on the alpaca’s face, Bogo’s not the only one who thinks so.

A deep, pounding noise approaches the kitchen and the last member to join the meeting of the minds enters.

Chadwick, just having gotten a quick patching from the doctors in the basement, looms over the mammals present. His fur is riddled with brutal-looking entry holes from where he was shot. There are wounds covering most of his body, with the most obvious being the missing eye that had been shot out. It was at such an angle that his brain was unharmed, but his two partners weren’t so lucky. A black eyepatch covers the hole left in his head, a temporary fix until he has more time to get put back together completely.

His remaining eye settles on the band of assailants at the other end of the table. His shoulders tense up like he’s about to pounce and a low growl rumbles the kitchen around them. A few of the living mammals jump back from the table a bit, ready to flee if they’re attacked.

When Chadwick sees that he’s sufficiently spooked them, he drops his act and takes a seat at the table next to Gazelle. Though his posture is slackened, he keeps his eye locked firmly on one of the armored mammals. The tiger’s presence brings an icy chill to the room that even Bogo can feel.

The room is quiet for several minutes as the participants settle in and examine each other. The final tally ends with Bogo and three of his most senior officers, Gazelle and her tiger guard, the leader of the Refoundation Society and three of her own comrades, Nick and Judy, along with the alpaca.

Bogo isn’t quite sure what her role is in this. She has to be a doctor of some sort, with the way she is observing the cub. Maybe a scientist?

The silence is broken by the sound of something ricocheting off of one of the assailants’ helmets. The mammal in question flinches back and whips his head from side to side, trying to see what was thrown at him, and by who.

Nobody around him is moving or even looking at him.

Off to the side, the tiny bunny kit looks around innocently, like she’s also trying to discover who could do such a thing.

Gazelle clears her throat, drawing the attention of every mammal in the room to herself. She doesn’t look happy to be here, and her shaking fists prove it. The arctic vixen seemingly comes back to life and turns her head to the owner of the house.

“So, here we are. The living, the dead, and whatever we are in between. A month ago, we were all the same. Predator, prey, but all alive. Today, we are so much different. The world went and changed without asking us first, and took most of us with it. But from the ashes of what the world used to be, I have seen so much good. Mammals finally getting along, despite their differences. Enemies treating each other as old friends. Families splintered, but new ones formed by the bonds of love between animals. It’s in the spirit of this hope for the future that I started saving the last surviving members of the city and using my home as a refuge for them. We have had many struggles in doing so, but we have so far succeeded. It’s my hope that today, despite the violence that has transpired between us, we might be able to understand each other better and clear away any false illusions.”

Everyone listens attentively to Gazelle’s opening statement. All ears, eyes, and noses are pointing right in her direction. Bogo melts a little bit, feeling completely fascinated by how much authority the seemingly gentle singer can command. She very well could have become a politician if she so wanted to. But the hollow sadness hidden just beneath the surface of her gaze hints that such a life would rob her of her very soul.

It breaks Chief Bogo’s heart, seeing her so far away from the life she would rather be living.

“If we are to discuss this in a civil manner, I will need everyone in attendance to stay calm throughout this meeting. This means no shouting over each other, no throwing accusations and especially no biting,” she says, the last part being aimed directly at the tiger next to her, who was subtly baring his teeth at the militants across the table. Chadwick closes his lips and looks away from them for the first time since he sat down, a true testament of his respect for Gazelle.

The living mammals in question finally allow themselves to relax, having been subconsciously reaching for the weapons that they weren’t allowed to bring inside.

The ZPD representatives watch the exchange, ready to intervene if claws start flying. Nick and Judy seem to be used to this, if their unphased expressions are anything to go by.

“Are we in agreement over this?” Gazelle asks tiredly. Some quiet sounds of approval fill the room as everyone accepts her terms.

“Good. Now...I want to start off by asking what your ‘Refoundation Society’ is telling you about the state of the world right now. What do you think we are?” the hostess asks the leader of the armored bunch. The vixen chews her lip for a few moments to gather her thoughts, her eyes burning a hole in the table in front of her.

She takes a deep breath and speaks.

“We have been operating under the assumption that the undead cannot be trusted. We know you aren’t mindless, but we have come to see your kind as deceptive at best. Cruel and vile at worst. And we don’t think this way for nothing. Every member of my team has been through more than enough to warrant their mindset. It was...not to our knowledge that there were other kinds of zombies populating the world. We have been hurting a lot of the undead who I know now were just trying to help, and for that I’m sincerely sorry.”

“Sorry will not bring back friends,” Chadwick huffs. The vixen doesn’t flinch away from him, instead turning to meet his fiery glare.

“It won’t bring back the ones you infected or killed, either,” she says with no emotion whatsoever.

“HA! We kill none! Maybe broken ribs, maybe concussion, but no death. We try to disable, not destroy. If we wanted to kill, you would be dead,” he laughs menacingly.

This response actually breaks through to her and she opens her eyes wider.

“No, you...that’s wrong. I saw them on the ground, dead! And you bit the back of Rider’s neck!”

Chadwick keeps his cool, even going so far as to lean back in his chair and balance on the back legs, which groan under the pressure.

“You check on friends? You see they are not dead. And Chadwick only bite back of kitty’s clothes. Has whiplash at most. That is all we do to you. Yet you kill two of us,” he growls at her, his anger showing though again.

The vixen turns and mumbles something inaudible to the militant sitting next to her. He shakes his head at her and the color drains from her face.

“Not great leader, eh? Do not even know if friends living or dead,” the big cat chuckles. “No wonder you shoot before knowing all details.”

“Well, what did you expect us to do?! An entire squad of undead tigers charging at us, why wouldn’t we open fire?!” she shouts. Her outward appearance is quickly becoming much more lively and animated. Her mask of professionalism is quickly slipping away from her and she isn’t even attempting to reel it back in.

Gazelle cuts Chadwick off before he can roar out a rebuttal to the vixen’s shot at him.

“I would have expected you not to shoot an unarmed, fleeing cub who also had a living rabbit kit in his arms,” she states firmly.

The vixen stops talking.

She turns to her friend again.

“You...shot at a kit?” she asks, her voice hoarse from the sudden usage. They engage in a muffled back and forth for a few minutes, during which time her ears dip closer and closer to the back of her skull.

The conversation is interrupted by another foreign object striking the vixen’s friend in the chest. He jolts back yet again and stands up, looking around the room for his continued harasser.

Everybody else is looking at him with disinterest.

He turns his helmet towards the tiny bunny kit who had almost gone savage and mauled him. She has a satisfied grin on her face, which she tries and fails to hide. The pissed-off mammal notices this.

“Why are those two even here?” he belts out, jamming a clawed digit towards the bunny.

Everyone turns to look at her, only to see her trembling with fear as she holds onto the cub for safety. He smiles with that same empty expression and rubs her back. Another little puff of steam trickles out of his head.

“Barry and Selena are important for this conversation, as they have been involved in our recent discoveries regarding the infection and its effects,” Gazelle calmly explains. This catches the attention of both the militants and the ZPD members. Selena spooks a bit when her name is called and peers up to see what’s happening. Barry twitches and turns to see what his bunny friend is looking at.

The haunting purple glow from Barry’s eyes sends a chill running down the backs of the living mammals in the room. Bogo and his officers merely look on in cautious curiosity.

“Wait...isn’t that the cub I…” the vixen’s friend mumbles at Barry. The cub turns to face the one speaking to him, the purple glow intensifying for a brief moment.

The vixen cocks her head to the side as she examines the strange white bear.

“Is he? But...didn’t you shoot him in the head?” she asks him.

He just nods and points to the stitched section of torn skin on Barry’s head.

“Right...there, on top…” he stutters. Her eyes go wide yet again as she tries to understand just what she’s being told. One of the undead was shot right in the head. He should be finally at rest. It was a clean shot and would have dropped anyone. Even the tigers didn’t get back up after a pop to the skull.

But this cub...he’s still here. He’s moving around and smiling and rubbing his friend’s back like it’s just another day for him. He should be digging his teeth into her soft fur right now. Tearing her to shreds. Turning another one to his biological cult.

All she can do is stare.

Barry meets her gaze and his own turns fearful. He flinches away like he’s being threatened, even if she’s not doing anything to scare him. It hits her that he’s acting like an abuse victim. The look she’s giving him must be triggering some sort of defense mechanism.

A tiny gasp leaves her mouth.

They really aren’t lying…

“I’m sorry, but I seem to be missing some crucial details,” Bogo interrupts. “What exactly are we even discussing? All I see are a few terroristic heartbeats, a long list of charges, two dead tigers on the lawn and two of my better officers out of uniform but still involved in a police situation.”

Gazelle turns her eyes towards him, instantly dousing some of his fiery temper. He just can’t stay mad when she looks at him.

“Chief Bogo...what we are discussing involves the future of everyone at this table. We are just snippets of much bigger movements going on all around us. The bonds between us must be strengthened if we are to work together to make the world a better place.”

Judy punches Nick in the shoulder and points to Gazelle excitedly. The fox just yelps and rubs his injured limb while his bunny bounces energetically in her seat.

Seems Gazelle said the thing.

“Ma’am, those are very pretty words, but I can’t enforce justice on poetic imagery. I need to know what we’re doing. Exactly what we’re doing,” Bogo insists with a frustrated sigh.

“Chadwick would also like to know,” the tiger speaks up from next to her.

“And I!” Barry spouts suddenly, his eyes brightening. “I...I don’t know…”

The cub laughs under his breath and rubs at his steaming head. The others around the table offer him a concerned look, especially the bunny under his chin. Selena can tell that something is different about her brother but she can’t figure out what she can possibly do about it. Doctor Packard looks at him with worry and fusses over his head some more.

“Okay, I am going to tell you what we know about ourselves. The undead. Because we are not mindless, but we are not all docile either. When we are infected and die, through the infection itself or through physical trauma, we come back as something else. And the first thing we do when we wake up is feed. This is a feral mindset that will fade when we taste blood. We don’t know why this happens, but it happens to everyone. Well, except Barry, but he’s a different story. Now then, the next thing we do is enter a stage of existence where we are more or less treated to an intense, euphoric high that keeps us feeling happy and pain-free. It’s at this stage that a lot of undead mammals stay. They will still hunt down the living if they are exposed to their scent, but can live almost as if they weren’t dead. The stage after this is much less clear, as it varies from mammal to mammal. Are you with me so far?” Gazelle asks, giving her time to take a small sip of water.

The vixen nods, but is visibly having a hard time taking in all that’s being offered to her. It doesn’t help that she’s blown away by the fact that the undead around her haven’t given up the act to charge at her.

“The next step is what I refer to as just ‘Lucidity.’ When a mammal rejects the pleasant feelings that the infection offers them and takes control back over their body, they will start coming down from the high. When they are free from the infection’s control, they can become their true selves again. We can stay in rooms with the living and have no urge to attack them. While we are still dead, we are alive enough to help those in the world around us. This is where we are at now. Is that about right, doctor?”

Doctor Packard looks up from her work on Barry to give a so-so gesture and a quick nod.

“Ah, fair enough. Any questions?”

The vixen speakw immediately, having been patiently waiting to do so.

“So you are all lucid in here? Everyone?” she asks nervously.

“Yes. Well, except for the ZPD, but we took care of that on our own,” Gazelle smiles. Bogo’s face falls when he hears this and his arm shoots up to the back of his neck, where a strangely painful welt is still present.

“What do you mean, ‘took care of that’?” he demands, almost slamming his fist into the table but stopping when he remembers whose table he’s sitting at.

Gazelle keeps her gaze on the vixen.

“Has your group of survivors found any sort of plant that calms the dead down?” she asks with a knowing glint in her eye. The vixen swallows but tries to maintain an air of secrecy.

“That’s...classified,” she mumbles back.

“Oh, dear, that’s too bad. Anyway, we’ve found a potential cure for the undead feral state that rids the mammal of their urge to eat living flesh for good,” Gazelle explains. The leader’s ears perk up.

“You did?”

“Why, yes! We are not just a survival camp, here. Doctor Packard and her team have been working sleeplessly to find out more about what can be done to make the world a safer place for everyone. And wouldn’t you know it, night howlers turned out to be quite a versatile ingredient!”

The vixen’s face falls into her paws as she lets out a loud groan.

Their only secret weapon against the undead, besides bullets, isn’t even a secret, apparently.

“Now, I have told you a bit about us. Can you tell us a bit about yourselves in return? I am very curious as to what plans you had for all of the survivors I have here,” Gazelle requests, her tone polite but her posture firm.

“We...were going to take them back to Meadowbrooke. That’s where they are taking all of the survivors. We’re not the entire Refoundation Society, we’re just one of the teams rooting through Zootopia for any living souls left,” she tells the undead around her, not caring that some of her own peers are trying to signal for her to keep quiet about those specific details.

Gazelle’s eyes widen at this news.

“Really…? There’s more? How many are there so far?” the hostess asks, her tone sounding more and more uplifted.

“Thousands. With more pouring in each day. Hell, it’s not just Meadowbrooke. There are new survivor societies setting up all over the place. Meadow is just the closest.”

An intense feeling of relief flows through Gazelle’s body and she sits back in her chair to take it all in.

She’s not the only one trying to help. 

There are many, many more survivors than she thought there would be.

The world isn’t lost. There’s still hope.

She slumps forward onto her elbows, burying her face into her fists. A sudden rush of emotion hits her as she realizes just how much of this could have been avoided if they had simply been made aware of this earlier. She wouldn’t have had to lose two of her friends over such a terrible misunderstanding. Tears fall onto the table, the splashing noises catching Chadwick’s attention. He leans forward to console her, and she hugs him without hesitation.

The living mammals stare in awe.

A zombie is crying. How can a dead body produce tears? It doesn’t make sense to them, but maybe it’s like everything else.

It just doesn’t need to make sense. The world is just changed now.

“I...just wish...you would have told me!” Gazelle wails at the vixen, who looks back at her with an uncomfortable grimace.

“We assumed you were keeping the living here for their meat...we wouldn’t have told you where there was much more meat to come get,” she admits.

“Why would you think that?” Nick asks, the first thing he’s said so far. He can’t get it through his head just why these mammals would come in, guns blazing, with such a weird reason for their motivation.

“Because we’ve had to deal with one of those already,” the vixen says, turning to Nick like she’s just noticed that he’s sitting there. She blinks at him a few times, looking between him and the rabbit he has his arm wrapped around. An flash of intense pain crosses her face, and Nick is the only one to notice it before it vanishes.

What was that about?

“That’s...awful…” Judy mutters to herself, her gaze locked on the table. The vixen gives her a mournful glance, but doesn’t say anything to her.

“So we had to assume that any of the camps we found were like that or worse…”

Gazelle calms herself down and gives a quick thanks to her injured tiger friend. She takes a few more moments to gather herself, moving back into the mask of a leader that she’s been forced to wear for so long now.

“Is that why you...took out the Mystic Spring?” she asks painfully, trying not to think about her fallen allies and friends.

The vixen takes a deep breath and sighs loudly. Every new detail being revealed to her is just making it harder and harder for her to see herself as a force fighting for the future of the world. It just makes her feel like a mindless killer.

“I’m sorry, but yes. They were...nice to us, like you are being. But we didn’t trust it. We just thought they were tricking us into coming inside. Looking back, I understand the mistakes we made. But like I said, we had reasons to believe we were being deceived.”

“...Did someone try to trick you?” Nick asks suddenly. The vixen meets his eyes and she knows right away that he knows exactly what she felt.

“...It happened to you, too, didn’t it?” she asks weakly. Everyone at the table looks between the two foxes, completely lost as to the pain they’re sharing at that moment. Judy gives Nick a worried look and tugs at his shirt. He blinks awake and peers down at her with a warm smile. She returns it and offers him a hug.

The vixen gives the couple a look of agony and slides back into her chair, completely locking up emotionally. To her, the meeting might as well be over.

She knows that she was wrong. 

He didn’t mean it. It was just the stupid infection making him do it…

If she had just kept him out until he figured out how to become lucid…

She remembers the feeling of the gun’s recoil when she pulled the trigger.

The gunshot has been deafening, but she couldn’t hear a thing besides his grunt of pain.

“...Okay, we’re getting nowhere,” Bogo grunts as he lifts himself up out of the chair and drops to the ground below. “When you lot are done discussing your plans, just let us know. We’ll be waiting outside with cuffs for all of you. I don’t care if you’re alive, you still killed numerous mammals in my city. Either way, I’m going to do my job!”

Judy is quick to chase after him, an argument already spewing from her lips as he makes his way towards the door. Nick, not having seen his boss enter, finally lays eyes on the state of the water buffalo.

A tiny little detail tickles his mind. Something Judy said about him weeks ago finally makes sense. He doesn’t even know why he remembers it, but the sight of the once-towering mammal hopping along on his fists draws a barking laugh from the fox that he has no time to defend himself against.

“CHIEF POGO!” he guffaws, descending into a fit of giggles that feels amazing after how much he’s seen and been through recently.

Just as he’s about to exit the door back out to the lawn, Bogo stops and slowly turns to his ‘on medical leave’ officer. Might as well make an honest mammal out of him, right?

“Hey, Doctor. How long does that medicine you injected me with last? I’m starting to feel a tad hungry already…” he growls. Judy turns to Nick with a look of fear and the fox immediately knows that he’s messed up.

Doctor Packard barely offers a shrug to the Chief, too involved in Barry’s wellbeing to listen fully.

“NICK! RUN!”

The fox is off like a bolt of red lightning down the hallway, with an enraged buffalo torso hobbling along after him, as a panicking bunny tries to slow him down.

Gazelle blinks around at the table, not quite processing what just happened.

Chadwick just shakes his head and tries to hide his laughter by planting his face in his paw.

The table is quiet for a few more moments.

Finally, they can get down to business about what they are to do with the surv-

A loud wail escapes the arctic fox as she bursts into tears, her hardened exterior crumbling away under the torrent of emotion. Her friends move to comfort her, but are beat by a white polar bear cub wrapping his arms around her. She freaks out for a moment, but quickly notices that she’s not being consumed or squeezed to death.

The mammals around her watch as their leader is comforted by a cub who had part of his brain blown out. She ordered the shot to be taken. She ended a cub’s life while he tried running away, yet he’s still trying to make her feel better.

She goes limp in his embrace and lets a great truth pass through her.

They were wrong.

She was wrong.

If only she had known earlier.

He might still be with her.

She misses her bunny...


	38. The Sky's Limit

Nick sits at one of the only available tables in the lobby area, plopping himself down right next to his brother. One the other side of the table, Bianca fusses over Barry as a doting mother would. The cub chuckles at the attention he’s receiving, but there’s a definite lack of a spark in his eyes. Besides the purple glow, that is.

Barry is an avid reader and a deep thinker. He constantly puts the well-being of others before himself, and has also been known to be a bit of a goof.

While the cub seated at the table with them looks and sounds like Barry, Nick can’t ignore the feeling that something important is missing.

Of course, he’s astounded to see him moving around at all. A bullet through the head is almost always enough to ground someone forever. Somehow, this young bear got back up only shortly after getting a piece of his brain damaged. And as one of the few details that the movies got right about zombies, the brain is something that not even the infection can function without.

But Nick can tell that Barry didn’t make it out unscathed. The damage that the bullet did to his brain is obvious. He’s still just as sweet and happy, but it’s almost like he’s lost his individuality. He reacts to what’s going on around him but isn’t as proactive anymore.

“How is he?” Nick asks Finnick. The sullen fennec sighs and scratches at his head, trying to make it seem like he’s not as upset as he really is.

“He’s okay…moving, at least. But yeah, I can see it too. That shot to the head messed him up. When he woke up, he was just like...aware of his surroundings but nothing else, if you get what I mean. He seems to know us. But anyone else looking at him or raising their voice scares him. I don’t know...he just seems younger in the head.”

“Like...age regression?” Nick asks fearfully.

“Something like that. But I swear, when I look at him sometimes, I think he’s trying to get better. Like, somewhere inside, he’s working to put himself together. If he can figure out how to heal his own brain enough to get back up, then he should be good soon...right?” Finnick asks weakly, his ears hanging by his side.

“I sure hope so, Finn. What’s Selena up to?” 

“Just taking a nap. Nerves got to her, she pretty much crashed once the meeting you were at ended,” the small fox explains.

“Where is she?”

“Where do you think?” Finnick smirks, gesturing up to the top of the polar bear cub’s head, where the form of a sleeping bunny rests comfortably. Barry understands enough to know that he needs to keep still so that she doesn’t fall off. While he’s immobilized, Bianca cleans the rest of him up. The spray of grey matter didn’t just cover the ground and door.

Nick takes a breath and leans back, turning his head to where Judy is still discussing something with Chief Bogo and the arctic vixen. Bogo’s tone is predictably harsh, but the conversation itself doesn’t seem to be heated at all. Probably has something to do with the legality of an apparently separate country’s armed forces taking out what they perceived to be a threat. 

All around them, more and more new survivors flow into the mansion. Gazelle is one of the first ones they’re allowed to see, since some of them apparently haven’t been exposed to the lucid undead yet. They’re already had a few jumpy creatures try to bolt the moment they saw a zombie smiling at them.

The original survivors are going to be kept in the gym for now, to reduce the amount of confusion going on. With busloads of survivors needing a place to stay for the night while their futures are decided, the house is going to be absolutely packed for the night.

Everyone walking through the door looks scared, tired, disheveled and starving. Hopefully Gazelle will have enough food stored around the place to feed everyone for the night, even if it might mean not feeding the undead helpers their fish. Since a lot of those entering the house look to be prey species, the hardest part is going to be finding enough greens. Swarms of more bunnies flow by and Nick immediately worries about what’s going to happen with Gwen. She seemed a bit close to that one buck with the science team, but it was much more of a friendly closeness that her usual book-seduction thing.

That still creeps Nick out a little.

Not because it’s silly, but because Judy had apparently used it successfully on him during her own hustle. If he had known bunnies did that, he might have been able to see through her bluff. But then again, he wouldn’t be her fox now…

No, to be where he is now, everything he’s done...every choice he’s made...if he had done any of them differently, he would be much worse off. He could have never met Judy, died in the street somewhere and just slumped around as a partial body missing it’s heart.

Things might suck right now, but they’ll be worth it in the end, when he’ll be able to…

To…

To what?

What does he even want anymore?

He wants to be with Judy. He wants to live a less stressful life. He wants to be able to see his brother’s family and his mother without having to fear everything around him. He wants to be able to go back to his apartment and just relax for once.

To do all that, he would most likely have to be dead.

But if he was dead, then he wouldn’t be able to help any of the living. He could possibly be forsaking his species if he doesn’t help.

Something pops back up into his head.

Something a certain tiger guard had told him days earlier, while traveling down the sidewalk.

Why did he have to choose between helping and dying? Why not both at separate times?

He could help the survivors out for a while, for as long as he would be useful, then he could leave and stay with Judy. Maybe retire with a quick bite or...maybe a kiss could do him in. He’s definitely been dying for one of those…

From the way they were talking at the meeting, the option for Nick to just stop by the house every few days to drop off his contributions is no longer on the table. Gazelle is talking very seriously about having all of the survivors moved to Meadowbrooke now, which is a good distance outside the city. A few days travel at least.

If Nick is going to help the survivors at all...he’s going to have to go there with them.

He’ll have to leave Judy behind.

At least for awhile…

This is definitely something they’ll have to talk about. As much as he wants to just think of himself and withdraw from the survival efforts, he knows that he could do so much good. Plus, Judy might not ever forgive him if he had a chance to make the world a better place and squandered it. Improving the world is her thing. 

As much as it might hurt the both of them to be apart, it would be for something much bigger than the both of them.

That’s the selfless mindset, anyway. He doesn’t even want to think about the implications of having a bunch of kits with multiple different vixens.

The flow of new survivors increases as the house starts to fill up and every room is occupied. There aren’t enough blankets to go around, let alone beds. Some of the larger mammals are being asked to let smaller mammals sleep on them for the night.

Nick can’t decide if the idea of bunnies sleeping on bears would be adorable or not. But then he peers over at Selena snoozing away on top of Barry’s head and immediately knows his answer.

The fox sighs and leans forward to rest his chin in his paws. Everything around him is changing so fast...it seems like just a few days ago he was playing keep away with his bunny, under the threat of death if he lost. Those were scary times, but it was much easier to comprehend. Fox in, bunny out, stay alive. But now he’s caught up in battles being fought between the living and the dead. He’s just one in a thousand now, another body waiting to get shipped out to Meadowbrooke.

So many new faces, every single one of them hinting at a different story of heartbreak and struggle. In a way, Nick has been lucky. He’s stayed alive while having his own circle of undead family and friends who have gone above and beyond to keep him safe. Every bad situation has ended in his favor, for the most part. How many of the other survivors can say the same? He’s probably the only living mammal who has entered a relationship with a member of the undead.

Duke walks by with a stack of fresh towels for the bathroom and sneezes suddenly.

Judy’s outside with Bogo now, so Nick can’t even tell from the tones of their voices what’s being discussed. The leader of the militants is probably outside with them. How strange it is, seeing another living fox here. Nick can’t help but compare her to Bianca, seeing what changes when an arctic fox turns.

And honestly, it’s hard to tell. Bianca was one who caught the infection without being bitten, so her death was purely from being sick. She’s in pretty much the same physical condition she was in when she was alive.

The leader is a bit shorter than Bianca, with pure white fur instead of white with black tips. Her ears are also quite a bit bigger and pointier than Nick has known arctic foxes for having. Is she really an arctic? It would probably be rude to ask.

Where did she even go?

His internal questions are answered as someone new sits down at the table next to him. Nick jumps a little bit at the sudden motion, turning his head to see who decided to sit down so forcefully. He comes muzzle to muzzle with the very arctic he was just wondering about in his head. Her sapphire blue eyes lock with emerald green ones, looking at something deep within him that he doesn’t get a chance to protect. His mask goes back up, but she’s probably already found what she was looking for.

“...Yes?” he asks awkwardly, trying to scooch away from her a bit. She’s way too close for his liking, especially after his run-in with the overpowering wave of lusty Hopps siblings. He can still feel all their bunny feet digging into his skin and bruising his innards…

“Can I talk to you about something?” she asks urgently, her face completely devoid of emotion. Whatever self-control she let slip away from herself is apparently back now. She’s once again her stern and authoritative self.

“About what, exactly?” Nick asks, his gaze narrowing.

“Something personal,” she quickly responds, a tiny crack appearing in her mask. Nick guesses that she isn’t as okay as she’s trying to act. Whatever she wants to talk about, it must be more personal than says it is.

“Okay, okay, fine. But we’ll have to go to a bathroom or something, all of the normal rooms are taken by the survivors you brought in,” Nick huffs. The vixen nods her head without really seeming like she’s listening to him.

Nick gets up from his spot at the table and leads her down the hall. He sees Duke walking back from one of the bedrooms, on his way to fetch some more towels. Great, just the weasel he was hoping to find.

“Hey Duke, buddy. Would you mind if we used the bathroom you’re always using for a sec? Miss Grim here wants to discuss something in private,” Nick asks. The weasel looks up at the two foxes with a confused expression. Isn’t that the leader of the attackers who almost got his family killed? Why is she inside and why is she with Nick?

“Uh...sure, I guess. Third door on the left,” Duke replies, giving the vixen a look-over. Her ears twitch with anxiety and her tail is moving side to side, but her face is absolutely empty. Something is bubbling under the surface and Duke can see part of it.

Something having to do with regret.

But whatever, it’s not his business.

As long as Nick isn’t taking her into his private bathroom to start repopulating early or anything. That would be completely against Nick’s nature, betraying Cottontail like that. But then again, he was thinking he might be one of the last living foxes, and probably hasn’t had any action in ages.

Naaah, that’s not Nick.

Right?

Duke shrugs and wanders off to finish his numerous tasks for the evening. He’s not having to fix anything right now, but he does have to prepare for the hundreds of mammals sleeping over for the night.

At least, he hopes it’s just for the night.

Nick leads himself and the vixen into what turns out to be a bathroom built for a mammal even larger than himself. What has Duke been using it for this whole time? A collection of mustelid fur cleaners next to the sink provides some major clues. Apparently the shower hasn’t even been used yet.

The vixen closes the door behind them and locks it. It suddenly occurs to Nick what this must have looked like to Duke, seeing him enter a bathroom alone with a living vixen around his age. He will admit that she’s quite a looker, but her personality so far has been bumming him out. Plus, he only has eyes for a certain bunny anymore. No one else can even compare, even if they’re alive.

“Okay, we’re here. What’s so important that you had to drag me into a bathroom?” Nick asks, sticking his paws into his pockets and acting as casual as possible. Right now, he holds the cards and she’s the one looking to him for answers. He doesn’t have to give anything away that he chooses not to. She’ll just have to deal with it.

She looks into his eyes for a minute, saying nothing.

It creeps Nick out.

Is she about to leap on him like the Hopps sisters? She locked the door and is standing in front of it...he’s bigger than her and has police training, but she looks more trained for actual lethal combat. She might be small, but she’s no doubt a deadly force to be reckoned with.

But she doesn’t attack or throw herself at him. Instead, she just sits calmly on the ground with her legs folded, almost like she ran out of energy to keep herself standing. Nick tilts his head in confusion, but repeats her posture and sinks to her level to see what’s wrong.

“Are...you and the bunny...together?” she mumbles, barely loud enough for Nick to hear. He leans back a bit, her words hitting him like a truck. He feels like how Flash must have felt, getting hit from one car to another without being allowed to touch the ground.

Is she actually coming onto him? They’ve only exchanged a couple sentences. Is this how desperate mammals are now to find mates? Just how bad is it outside the city?

“Well...yeah, we are. Why?” Nick asks, fearing what her answer might be.

Please don’t ask to make babies.

Please don’t ask to make babies.

No kits for this fox right now, he’s taken.

“But...she’s a zombie. You know that, right?” the vixen asks, peering up at him with eyes that are dangerously close to watering over.

“Of course I do. She was one of the first ones to turn when the infection hit Zootopia,” Nick answers carefully, realizing that there are delicate feelings on the line.

“...How…?” she chokes, reaching up to rub away the moisture in her eyes.

“How what?”

“How did you get through to her? How did you get her to stop attacking you? She’s perfectly fine around you now, so...what happened?” she pries. Nick takes a deep breath, memories of his first week or so still painful to think of. Back then, he still didn’t have a good idea of what was going on, and only knew that Judy was different and that she was trying to get in to kill him.

“Well, it wasn’t right away, that’s for sure. Took awhile for her to actually get the idea in her head that the infection was bad for her. After that, she was mostly back to the way she was before dying.”

The vixen stares at him expectantly, clearly waiting for more.

“...But what happened that changed her mind?” she asks further. Nick thinks back to that night...the one where they were supposed to watch movies together, even if she would have to stay outside his window.

“Our movie night. She brought a bag of snacks for me, and we were going to watch some of her favorite movies together. I had to open the door a bit to fit the snack sack through, and...it’s a good thing I thought to use a decoy paw, or I’d be just like her now. I swear, I don’t think she meant to do it, her body just took control over her and made her-”

“Made her what?”

“...She attacked what she thought was my paw. Tore the stuffing out of a glove and I slammed the door shut on her. Her almost doing that to me bummed me out so badly that I didn’t talk to her for the rest of the night. Guess she felt so guilty that she cursed what the infection had made her do and...that was pretty much it. Woke up the next morning and she was lucid enough to save me from a group of vengeful sheep,” he explains, closing his eyes as he recalls what was going through his head that fateful movie night. To think that almost being bitten by Judy was the worst thing to ever happen to him back then.

Ha.

What he’s been through since makes that near-bite seem like nothing.

The Alpha had been much closer to ending him than Judy had been.

The vixen is quiet for a few minutes, her mouth moving but no words coming out. She’s definitely at war with something inside of herself.

“That’s...that’s all...that’s all it took…” she chokes. She holds her white arm up to her muzzle and suddenly bites down hard into her own flesh, drawing a pained whine from herself. Nick jumps to his paws at the sudden act of violence, his eyes scanning over her and looking for clues as to why she bit herself. He can’t find anything, so he’s just left confused.

“Wh-what the-?! Why?!” he demands, leaning down closer to her and trying to pry herself from her own limb. She struggles against him, her furious eyes glaring up at him with hatred. It takes some extra muscle to pull her jaws open, but he has her away from her injured arm within seconds. Blood trickles down from multiple deep punctures in her skin.

“What’s wrong?!” Nick yells into her face, shaking her to knock some sense into her. She just screams loudly back at him. What starts off as a warcry quickly descends into frantic sobbing. Nick finds himself locked in a bathroom with a distraught vixen who is trying to hurt herself for some reason. Why does this keep happening to him?!

“I KILLED HIM!” she wails, baring her teeth at the red fox holding her still. Nick flinches and looks back into her eyes. He can see so much burning guilt in them. The blue in her eyes is more grey than they were earlier. How does that even happen?

“Killed who?!”

“I KILLED JACK!” she sobs, her body going limp in his grasp. He supports her weight and slides her over to the wall to prop her up against it. Not knowing what else to do to comfort her, he wraps his arm around her shoulder and leans her against him. Surprisingly, she accepts the support and latches to his side.

For at least twenty minutes, Nick lets her expel her emotions. The sounds of her crying echo around the bathroom walls, creating an eerie chamber of misery that is so shockingly clean and white. It’s an off-putting contrast. He offers her a back rub, which seems to help her calm down a bit more.

He never would have expected that the leader of a team of trained soldiers would be leaning on him while she cried about someone she apparently killed.

According to the meeting, she killed a lot of mammals.

A few of whom Nick knew personally. He shouldn’t be this close to her, he should be hating her guts for what she did. But after the revelation about how other zombies that they’ve come across behave, he can’t honestly blame her for treating every undead stronghold like a fortress to be broken into.

There was no completely right answer she could have chosen.

If she had scoped out every new location, they might have opened themselves up for attacks from those who are smart enough to trick them.

The preemptive attack was probably a good call, if she had applied it somewhere else.

She finally calms down enough to speak.

“I could have just tricked him...into thinking he bit me...that’s all I needed to do…” she mumbles sadly. Her eyes are empty and still leaking fresh tears, but she appears too emotionally exhausted to bawl anymore.

Nick looks down at her questioningly.

“Jack...he was turned too. I tried to get through to him, but when he got close to me, he just...lost it. Went feral and chased me around the compound, trying to kill me...I...I did the only thing I could think of…” she whispers.

The red fox closes his eyes, already knowing what she’s telling him.

“I shot him. In the head. I killed him when all it took was some guilting him into realizing he was a victim of the same infection that killed him…”

“You didn’t know,” Nick says firmly. She tries to argue, but he cuts her off.

“I didn’t know, either. I thought she was never going to be able to be around me again. I was fully ready to just resign myself to starving that night...I didn’t want to lose my sense of self. Turning was a possibility in my mind before that incident, but I blamed Judy for almost turning me into what she is. Please don’t hate the undead for what they do, it’s not their fault. I know Judy was horrified the minute she snapped out of it. They really don’t want to attack us. And the ones that do, well...they’re either misguided or were psychos to begin with. Turning just gave them an excuse to cause violence,” Nick tells her.

She listens quitely, nodding her head every so often. Nick feels something warm and wet seep into his fur and silently prays that it’s tears instead of snot.

“...I just wish I had known. We could have been together this whole time, like you and your bunny…” she sighs. Nick looks down at her again.

“Wait, so you two were together as well?”

“Mhm,” she replies without hesitation.

“Wow. So I guess I’m not all that weird after all, huh?” Nick chuckles, trying to lighten the mood a tiny bit. Luckily, the vixen is willing to accept his weak attempt at making her feel better.

“Oh, no, you’re still weird. You should have definitely just let her turn you by now. That way, you can snog her all you want without having to worry about anything!” she giggles, causing herself to get a case of the hiccups.

“I keep hearing that word and I don’t really want to know what it means…” Nick grumbles. Of course he knows what it’s slang for, but he doesn’t like the way it sounds. Instead of sounding like a loving interaction between two consenting parties, it just sounds like two lusty rabbits flinging themselves into each other like ragdolls in the hopes that something will stick.

“...Promise me something, uh...you…”

“Nick Wilde.”

“Skye.”

“Skye what?”

“Skye Classified, just listen to what I have to say, you git.”

Nick rolls his eyes but allows himself a smirk.

“Okay, throw it at me.”

“...Never let your bunny go,” she orders him. Nick’s eyes widen a bit as he looks down into her icy blue gaze. “You have no idea how lucky you are to still have each other. Somehow, even though she’s dead, you two managed to find a way to be together. I’m so jealous of you two that you can’t even comprehend it.”

“Wow...uh, than-”

“Like, if I could just pop you in the head and jump into your life, I would. You know, if your bunny was my bunny instead.”

Nick frowns at the dark imagery she’s portraying for him.

“Uh...yeah, thanks. I got it. And don’t worry, I don’t plan on leaving her anytime soon,” Nick promises, but he’s met with a piercing glare.

“So what are you planning on doing when the survivors ship out to Meadowbrooke tomorrow? They don’t allow any undead inside their walls and Gazelle already told me that you were hanging around so you could help. What is your plan?”

Nick swallows and suddenly realizes that she has him dead to rights.

He has no idea what he’s going to do.

But it’s something he’s going to have to talk over at length with his bunny.

“I...Judy and I have to discuss it,” Nick admits, rubbing the back of his head. Skye’s glare softens and she lets out a tense sigh.

“Look, I’m not going to tell you that you have to decide between her and the survivors, but...please, just remember what you have here and how much you’d be missed.”

“What would you do?” Nick asks curiously.

“Oh, I’d have let Jack bite me day one if I had known more about the infection and what it does to us when we die. I know how you feel about losing yourself, I had the same fear. Being trapped in my own body while it moves against my will is like...the scariest thing I can imagine. Not even a contest,” she says casually, finally gathering enough strength to pull away from Nick and wipe her face clean of all the tears and sn-

Damn.

It was boogers.

Ugh.

Nick wipes his arm off on a clean towel as Skye stands up and dusts herself off.

“Thanks for listening, Nick. Sorry about all of this, it’s just...been on my mind for a while. I kept marching forward to keep myself from thinking about it, but hearing that I could have been happy with him just broke me. But seeing you and your bunny actually makes me feel better about the way the world is changing. Keep fighting for your heart, trooper,” she says with a much brighter tone. She is lively again, but she is like an entirely different fox.

With that last word, she unlocks the door and steps back out into the rest of the mansion. The sounds of hundreds of voices talking flow into the bathroom and disrupt whatever peace that had been present.

Nick stands up and follows her out, intent on getting back to see his bunny.

He wants to give her an especially good ear rub.

Just because.

The moment he steps out, Duke walks by again with even more fresh towels. The weasel’s eyes glance at Nick, taking in his disheveled look, tear-stained pants and snot-covered paw that Nick tries in vain to rub away on his shirt.

Duke glances over at the vixen leader, who looks like she just won the lottery with how much she’s bouncing as she walks. Something took the load off her shoulders, for sure.

His eyes shoot back to Nick and give him a suspicious look.

“So...someone enjoyed whatever that was,” Duke mutters.

“Oh, shut it, tube snake,” Nick mutters as he wipes the last boogie off his paw...

Directly onto Duke’s head.

One of those towels never makes it to wherever it was headed.


	39. Tomorrow

“Can you read to me?”

Barry sways slightly as he turns his head down to the small bunny he had just tucked into her cot. All around them, hundreds of new faces take their places among the cots that are usually occupied by the mammals downstairs. Selena was quick to make sure that their places weren’t commandeered. The few material possessions she has are kept there! 

The cub blinks down at her, his eyes still glowing purple. A tiny puff of steam exits his skull. Selena cringes slightly but doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t want to make her brother feel bad about himself, especially what he went through to make sure she stayed safe.

He’s still Barry.

The wound actually makes him look pretty cool, and the glowing eye thing makes him look like he has laser vision! He’s like a superhero! How else could get shot in the head and get back up?

Barry sits down at his own cot, his legs hanging over the side facing Selena. All around him, the new survivors are staying far away from him. His bed in the guest room has been taken over by the scores of overnighters, so he is allowed to stay at his old cot. Gazelle knows that he isn’t a threat, and by putting the cub and bunny together, the hostess is hopeful that the recent arrivals will be able to see how the living can get along with the dead. After all, the two were enough to stop the raid on the mansion earlier.

“Well?” Selena asks again, holding up the last book he had started reading to her. She can read just fine, but enjoys hearing his voice. He likes doing different voices for all of the different characters, which helps the kit get into the story.

Barry reaches out and gently takes the book from her grip. As she gets comfortable, the cub opens the book up to where the page was last folded over. His glowing eyes scan the pages, but the tiny words only make his face fall.

Selena waits patiently for him to resume his reading, but he doesn’t. She looks up at him and sees that he’s just giving the book a confused look, like he has no idea what to do with it. The bunny’s face falls as she processes just how extensive the results of his headshot actually are.

He can’t read, can he?

The thing that Barry loved to do most in the world, his only true hobby, is out of reach for him now.

She can tell by the look of frustration on his face that he’s trying really hard to do what she’s asking of him. But he doesn’t say anything out loud. Come to think of it, he hasn’t actually said a single thing since waking up.

Can he not even talk?

Even if he could read, he wouldn’t be able to read for her if he can’t talk…

Selena’s cot groans a bit as she sits up and softly tugs the book from his grip. He gives her a hurt look and lowers his muzzle towards the ground, knowing that he failed her. She just offers him a rub on the paw to let him know that it’s okay. He relaxes a bit and watches her expectantly.

She opens the book in front of her and tries to recall what voices he did for what characters. The last time he read to her was about a week ago, and plenty has happened since then. So her memory is a little rusty. But by rereading the end of the last chapter, she remembers roughly where the story left off.

Barry sits and listens intently to her as she starts reading. Her voice isn’t as confident or practiced as his, and her different tones for the characters mostly sound the same. But she is clear with her pronunciation and doesn’t stutter much.

He closes his eyes as he listens, seemingly getting lost in the world she’s conveying for him. The steam coming out of his head increases for some reason, and Selena can swear she hears a slight crackling sound. His eyes are closed, but she can see the purple light burning through the thin skin of his eyelids.

Despite the strange occurrence, she continues reading for him. A small smile spreads across his face, only encouraging her to go further in the story. Her voice grows louder as she gains confidence. Her character voices become more distinct.

Before she knows it, she’s read through four chapters and most of the other mammals are starting to settle down for the night. Gazelle has fed who she could provide for, but some of the prey species are going to sleep with mostly empty bellies. The occasional stomach groan can be heard from the crowds.

Just as Selena finishes the chapter she’s reading, she lets out a massive yawn and has to rub her eyes. She looks up at Barry just in time to catch a much more alert look on his face. His eyes are focused for the first time since the shooting, but expression is one of fear.

She whips her head in the direction that he’s looking, immediately seeing two large figures towering above the rest of the mammals still standing. A couple of older, disheveled-looking polar bears are waiting around for a space to be cleared for them to lay down. Their clothes are worn and dirty and half the male’s uniform is covered with black stains.

It’s hard to believe he’s not one of the undead. He certainly looks the part.

Who is this?

Selena turns back to Barry and sees that his eyes aren’t glowing purple anymore. His entire body is shaking like he’s just seen a ghost. The pleasant air he’s carried with him since the shooting is gone now, replaced with what she can only guess is mortal terror.

He’s afraid of them.

They don’t look his way, so Selena can’t tell if they also recognize him. Barry very slowly slides himself back onto his cot and lays down, wrapping himself completely in his blanket to hide himself from the two he doesn’t want to be seen by.

Selena stands up on her cot and peers up at her brother with concern.

Why is he behaving this way?

Wait...are those two...his parents?

The bunny looks back at them and tries to compare their features to Barry’s. She’s not good at knowing what polar bears normally look like, so she can’t tell if Barry has any distinctive features that would match those of the two adults.

Her ears fall back behind her head as she tries to understand why he would be afraid of his own parents. The entire time he’s been with her, he hasn’t talked about his parents, usually deflecting her questions or just making excuses about it being a long story.

But she noticed that he never looked happy when they were brought up.

Is that why he’s acting like this? Are his parents bad mammals?

Did...did they hurt him?

Selena reaches up and puts a paw on his shoulder, only for him to flinch back and yelp, making the first vocalization she’s heard post-raid. The only thing he’s managed to say so far is a cry of fear, and it breaks Selena’s heart right in half.

But wait...didn’t he say something during the meeting? She remembers him randomly shouting something, when the purple glowed a bit brighter, but he quickly retreated back into himself. What is going on up there in that mind of his?

Two more bodies are suddenly joined in together on Barry’s cot, both sets of undead butts taking up what little space the cub isn’t. Selena peers up at Barry’s two recent foster parents and they make themselves comfortable. The kit wants to think they’re there to help make him feel better, but the grim looks on their faces only worry her more.

They look at each other before Bianca speaks up solemnly, unable to look the bunny in the eyes.

“Selena, sweetie...we know you’ve been through a lot recently, and you are just now catching up on rest. The last thing we want to do right now is drag you down further...but...we have something we need to discuss with you,” the undead arctic says as gently as she can. Finnick is sitting next to her but looks equally put-out by wherever the conversation is headed.

Selena holds onto Barry’s arm through the blankets, needing the support from him. He shifts around after a few seconds, his white arm sliding out for her to latch herself onto.

“What…?” she asks weakly. What else can go wrong? She already almost lost her brother again. As long as she has him, she can probably make it through whatever they’re hinting at.

“Gazelle was talking to us, since she knows how much you mean to Barry, and...well, sweetie, the surviving mammals are going to be going away with the others tomorrow. They need to find some more busses, but after that, they’re planning on having everyone head out to Meadowbrooke to join the survivor territory there,” Bianca explains.

Selena’s nose twitches as she tries to understand what she’s being told.

“So...what? Are we going somewhere else?” she asks nervously, giving Barry’s arm a tighter squeeze. The blanket shifts around some more and the cub’s white muzzle peeks out.

“Well...no, not Finnick, Barry or myself...we can’t go. They don’t allow the undead inside, since they are trying to keep another outbreak from wiping the rest of them out,” Bianca replies.

Selena tilts her head questioningly.

“It means that you’re going to have to go with them,” Finnick says bluntly from his place behind his mate. Bianca slaps him in the side with a paw for his lack of tact, but he doesn’t care. He knows that Selena needs to be leveled with completely so that she can grasp the severity of the situation.

The bunny’s eyes go wide at this news. This is not the kind of news she was expecting. She thought that she would be able to handle anything short of Barry being taken away again, but…

Barry’s being taken away again.

No, actually, this time she’s the one being taken away from him.

She won’t know anyone if she goes. She might as well be homeless again, but without even a friend to keep her company. They’ll just raise her until she’s old enough to mate, then she’ll be forced to have millions of crying babies. Maybe even billions.

Just a future of seeing walls all around her, never being able to hear from the ones she loves ever again…

Surrounded by strangers and not having anyone there to turn to.

It’s her worst fear coming back to life. A lifetime of miserable loneliness, only useful for the kits she’ll be able to shoot out one day. It’s the purpose of a doe, isn’t it? Just to grow up and have infinite babies forever until the day she dies?

It’s the life she always knew she didn’t want.

She never wanted to be in a large family. Even being in a relationship never sounded that appealing to her. What she had with Barry before Gazelle found them was perfect, in her mind. Just her and her brother roughing it together in whatever the apocalypse left behind. He would tell her stories and write stories of his own while she led them around the world, seeing everything there is to see.

And if one of them turns, they can both turn together.

From the way the undead change once they turn, they could have just kept going with their adventures once they were both dead. Then nobody could say that they’d be in danger anymore. Just the two of them, forever…

Selena thinks back to what she promised herself back when she was sitting under her favorite tree with her favorite cub and his recently adoptive parents. Back when she thought he would just be leaving during the night, she swore that she would let him go if she needed to. If it came down to it, they would try to stay in contact, even if they had to be far apart.

This is the exact situation she considered the worst case scenario.

Being separated just because he’s dead and she’s alive.

Selena wants to be mature about this so badly. Thinking back to every bad decision she made that ended up getting others in trouble, she hates how stupid she’s been. Everything always has to be about what she wants for herself in that exact moment. The consequences never matter, as long as she gets her way.

She can feel herself crying as two more sets of paws wrapping their way around her shoulders. Someone has moved to her other side, but her vision is too blurry to see who.

Why is it so hard to accept that things will have to change? She’s only ten, so there’s no way that they would let her go off on her own. Every decision regarding her future will fall into someone else’s paws and there’s not a thing she can do about it.

And it hurts so badly.

She just wants to disappear…

Just take Barry and go…

That way, they could just resume the life they had been living before they were taken in by Gazelle’s squad of bruisers. Why did they ever agree to join? They were living a great life, even if they didn’t get to eat that much. And Barry had to do most of the running...and lifting...and navigating…

Huh.

She’s been relying on Barry to save her this whole time.

And here she is, fantasizing about a reality where he never got to meet the two mammals that have taken him in as their own. Without Gazelle’s help, they never would have met Bianca and Finnick, and Barry would have still been feeling like a lost runaway.

Maybe...maybe she should just accept this new change and try to see the good that she’ll be doing instead of wishing for everything to go her way.

For once.

If she’s leaving tomorrow...she wants to make her last day with Barry memorable, even if he’s in no condition to remember anything right now. Maybe, at some point in the future, he’ll heal enough to wake back up and know how much she loves him…

If only the world would allow him one kindness.

She finally notices that she’s caught up in the middle of a group hug. She can barely see around her, but she notices that some of the new survivors are giving her horrified looks, like they think she’s being eaten by the undead mammals around her or something.

The fools don’t know what they’re thinking.

“I’m sorry! Oh, Selena, I’m so sorry this has to happen!” Bianca cries down at the bunny, making sure not to accidentally scratch her. Finnick is hugging her as well, though he’s trying not to be so emotional about it. It’s a sober reality and one of many he’s had to face in his life. Sometimes change has to happen and mammals have to move away.

Whatever is for the best.

“It’s okay…” Selena softly mumbles. She feels that Barry’s paw is nudging against her and she turns her entire body around to hold onto him. She takes in the feeling of his soft white fur, with his muscles still lurking under his skin. He’s a strong cub, plenty strong enough to take care of her if she needs him to.

But he’s been doing it for so long.

Maybe it’s time that someone else takes over. He has a new life to live with his new family, after all. If Selena goes with the survivors tomorrow, she’ll have dozens of armed guards keeping watch over her and plenty more in Meadowbrooke.

It’s probably the only safe place for her.

Gazelle’s place is nice now but it’s already suffered two raids and multiple casualties.

Including Barry..

If they never came here together, would he still be alive? The wolves probably never would have found them and they could have been living on the run. But at the same time, there’s not telling who else might have gotten to them first. What if she got taken away? They might have been separated much earlier, and she could have been the undead one right now.

It’s a scary line of thought. Barely worth considering.

But it bothers her so much.

“What was that…?” Bianca says as she pulls away from the bunny, not believing her ears.

“I said...it’s okay…” Selena repeats, a bit louder this time. Finnick looks at her like they’ve switched heads. He can’t fathom that she would accept this so easily.

Her, out of all kits. The one who has refused to leave Barry’s side to the point of practically killing herself when she thought he had been put down by that bullet.

“So, you’ll...go with them tomorrow…?” Bianca asks further.

“Do I have a choice in the matter?” Selena responds tiredly, already knowing the answer.

“I mean...not really, since we’re not your guardians. You’re technically under Gazelle’s care right now, and she’s already expressed that she wants you to go.”

Selena sighs and nods her head slightly. It’s an obvious decision, sending a kit without a family to live in one of the safest parts of the world right now. Once she’s there, she won’t have to worry about being turned or getting hunted down by the undead.

“Thought so…” she mumbles. A comforting paw rubs her ears gently, drawing a slight squeak of relaxation out of her. She loves having her ears rubbed, but she’s very sensitive about who she lets touch them. A rabbit’s ears are very personal, after all. She wouldn’t let just anyone have a go at them.

But Barry has long since earned his ear rubbing pass.

And he’s rubbing them the same way he always does, using the same pattern up going up while folding them slightly. He always remembers never to bend the fur back. She hates that so much.

She looks up at him and is shocked to see his eyes locked with her own. The purple is gone and there’s a hint of a spark there again. He’s actually focusing on her.

He’s seeing her again.

Not just looking through her.

Selena hastily wipes the tears from her face and squirms to face her brother. Finnick and Bianca watch her, confused as to what she’s trying to do.

The kit stares into the cub’s eyes, ner nose twitching like crazy as she scans him over.

“Barry…?” she asks him, trying not to get her hopes up too high. The two adults to either side of her watch sadly, knowing that the kit probably doesn’t understand why her honorary sibling isn’t acting like himself. He was always so animated around her, so his new behavior is probably worrying her a great deal.

“...Sal?”

Everyone goes quiet as the cub lets out a groggy grumble and just seems to...wake back up. He coughs up a bit of purple grime, but the steam from his head is notably missing now.

It can’t be.

It’s only been an afternoon!

How could he possibly have…?

“Ow…” he mumbles, his large white paw slipping away from Selena and moving up to rub the area of his head that had been leaking smoke for hours. He flinches when he feels the patched-up gunshot wound.

The cub looks down at the stunned faces looking up at him as he sits up.

“Uh...what’s going on?” he asks nervously, not liking the looks of disbelief he’s seeing. All he remembers is bouncing around inside of a bright room for ages, trying to put a bunch of flashing lights back together. What a strange dream he had…

Did Selena bonk him on the head again?

What’s with the headache?

He’s blindsided by a bunny-shaped bullet colliding with his chest and clinging to him. Before he can balance himself, he’s struck by two more flashes of fur. These two have a combined weight high enough to actually send him sprawling back against the cot. He has no idea what’s going on, but hey, he’ll never turn down the opportunity for more free hugs.

The cub encircles his family with his thick white arms and hugs them back all at the same time. He remembers not to squeeze tightly, since Selena could be killed by his increased zombie strength.

“What’s up, guys? Did I miss something?” he asks casually. He notices that his joints are cracking a lot, a sign that he hasn’t been moving around that much for a while. Has he been sleeping this whole time? It’s getting dark out now.

Wow, zombies can sleep. At least he won’t have to give up his mid-day naps.

Selena wants to do nothing but gush over him, but she remembers the conversation she had just been having with the cub’s adoptive parents before he woke up. No matter how amazing it is that he’s mostly back to his normal self, she knows that he must be told about what’s happening.

She...wants to be the one to talk to him about it.

Just as Barry starts to turn his head in the direction of his biuological parents, Selena reaches up and grabs his paw. Before Finnick or Bianca can say anything, the bunny is pulling her brother up off the cot and towards somewhere where they can be alone to talk.

Just as she’s looking for a private room, which there are zero of because of the new arrivals, a bathroom door opens and Selena sees Nick and Judy walking back out. Well, Nick is walking and Judy is just hanging limply in his arms, completely drained of energy. The fox’s entire shirt is soaked and he has a grim expression on his face, like he just wants whatever he’s going through to be over. Judy can be heard sniffling softly as the two pass by the cubs. Selena offers a tiny way to her hero from her place over Nick’s shoulder.

Judy flips in ear in response but is too distraught to summon any more energy than that.

What were they doing in there…?

Oh well, free bathroom.

Duke passes by with a single towel and eyes the youngsters suspiciously. Before they can duck inside, he slips in and looks around, sniffing and scanning for something unknown. Barry looks just as lost as Selena does. The weasel seems to complete his scan and nods in satisfaction before sliding his way back out.

He gives them a tiny gesture to go on inside the room before making his way down the hall to add to his mountain of towels. What a strange tube he is.

Selena tugs Barry into the bathroom with her, even though she’s aware how much stronger he is than her. He’s allowing her to pull him.

Once they’re inside, Barry has to be the one to lock the door, since it’s out of the bunny’s reach.

“So...what’s this about, then, Sal?” he asks casually, his gaze warm and intelligent again. Selena was so worried he would be stuck that way forever. She would have preferred that to him dying from the gunshot, but she can’t even enjoy this best-case scenario for what it is.

“Barry...we have to talk about tomorrow.”

Unbeknownst to her, another living-dead pair had a conversation almost identical to this one not even ten minutes earlier.


	40. Today

The residents of the basement level of Gazelle’s mansion are just starting to wake back up by the time that Gwen notices she hasn’t slept a wink. It’s not that she’s tired, because she is.

She’s soooo sleepy.

But the answers to her the problems have been so tantalizingly close this whole time. But every time she solves one issue, three more pop up for her to stamp out. It’s like someone is messing with her by saying she only has three problems to solve, but every problem has a subsection for each letter of the alphabet.

It doesn’t help that she can only real help with the problems have been simplified into numbers for her. She’s completely lost when it comes to the chemistry and biology that is discussed.

That’s where Bucky comes in.

Yes, she thinks his name is silly.

It’s like if she was called Doey.

But she’s never met anyone who fits so naturally into a role he never got to finish training for. He was midway through his first year of college when the infection hit. Compared to the rest of the scientists around him, he’s woefully underprepared. But because he’s a quick learner and one who can think outside the box most of the time, he’s been able to keep up with the others and even suggest a few ideas of his own.

The two of them kept working while the rest of the science team took a break from the constant chatter of the survivors filling the room. It’s not easy to work with so many voices buzzing in your ear. But thanks to Gwen’s experience with being around swarms of other mammals all the time, she’s been able to withstand the noise.

Bucky is slightly annoyed with the sounds but is able to force himself to ignore them. The elusive answers are frustrating him just as much as they are Gwen.

And he’s been working on them for much longer than her, making each new hurdle almost personally insulting. But with her help, he’s been blasting through the process like never before.

He doesn’t know how she does it.

It’s like she doesn’t even have to think about her answers, they just appear in her head and she trusts them.

He can’t believe he’s falling for the multiplication method! That was supposed to be a myth! But she doesn’t treat him much different than the others, so he doesn’t want to assume that’s actually what she’s doing. For all he knows, she might actually just be really good at math and is applying her skills accordingly.

That’s probably it.

She’s a bit older than him anyway.

There’s no way she’s interested. She would have given him a bigger signal than just a book of math problems.

Oh well, at least he can enjoy working with her. It’s like his missing piece is back or something cheesy like that.

Gwen looks over at Bucky with eyes that she can barely keep open. The buck is losing his fight against sleep, his head shoved between the centerfold of the giant book of math problems she had left there.

Seeing his face pressed up against her most prized possession makes her feel something strange. It’s possessive like with Nick, but much warmer and less desperate. Less instinctual and more personal.

Gwen blinks tiredly around at the sound of approaching hooves. Bucky’s ear flops up to listen but doesn’t even have the energy to stay up. It falls back down onto his head with a muffled slap.

Dr. Packard is making her way back to the research area, her eyes visibly widening when she sees that the two bunnies are the only ones still working. Everyone else has buggered off to who knows where.

The white rabbit offers the alpaca a small wave, to which the doctor returns with a bit more enthusiasm. Well, well, something has her in a good mood.

Packard even feels energetic enough to mess with her true underling. She walks up behind Bucky, picks up a heavy binder of notes and drops it flat on the table next to his head. The buck jolts awake with his eyes wide and his paw clutched over his chest. Gwen vaguely recalls something she was told about a weakness in bunny biology...something about heart attacks.

Luckily, Bucky doesn’t immediately die from the shock of being awoken so suddenly. He just whips his head around until he sees Packard looking down at him with an unreadable expression. He quickly calms down as allows himself a stretch and a yawn.

“What’s up, Ma’am?” he asks groggily, either of his eyes able to completely focus on her.

“I want you two to see something,” she says cryptically as she bends down over them. Gwen shivers a bit at how close she is to a zombie, but forces herself to stay put.

“See what?” Bucky asks, his paw the only thing keeping his head from crash-landing back into the book.

“Something miraculous!” she cheers, going against what they’ve known her to act like, especially to Gwen. So far, she’s only seen the alpaca at her darkest.

“No foolin’? Wow...I could really use some good news right now, everything around us had been too tense. Need a break…” Bucky yawns again. He tries to lift himself up but almost falls when his legs give out from under him.

Gwen is quick to catch him, the two standing there as they feel each other’s warmth for the first time. They turn to each other and almost bump noses.

Packard raises a brow at the stereotypical bunny display of affection. She knew she was going to regret letting these two work together...she’s honestly surprised she doesn’t have a trillion kits running around by now.

Okay, that last part might have been offensive.

She should work on that.

Thankfully, the two quickly back off and act like nothing happened, while occasionally sneaking peeks to see if the other is looking. It’s so cutesy and by-the-books that Packard can’t help but groan from the mental glucose of it all.

“Just...follow me, please. And watch out for the living, they’re starting to pack their things,” the doctor urges them. The bunnies blink in confusion at each other, but comply with her requests. Their wobbly legs tingle with the sleepies, but Gwen manages to support the both of them. Again, the closeness makes them both clam up.

All around them, the survivors are waking up and getting ready for something. Hopefully they’re being moved back upstairs and out of the way of the science team.

Packard leads them through the main area of the house, which is even more packed in than the gym downstairs. Why did they decide to pack so many mammals in the same house? Couldn’t they try to ask a neighbor to spare some space?

The room is a bit stinky.

Too many mammals with two few bathrooms. Are they allowed to use any of the showers? Probably not, at least for now. Other arrangements need to be made before they start letting mammals block off toilet access for long periods of time.

Gwen feels more thankful for the amount of bathrooms back home. If the burrow was built like this house, she might have lost her mind from the sheer stinky.

The alpaca navigates her way through the maze of occupied cots, some of them strangely occupied by more than just one species. Families of rodents and lagomorphs are sleeping on the bellies of much larger mammals, and this somehow hasn’t led to any injuries yet.

What if the elephant rolled over? There would be dozens of casualties to add to the list.

Speaking of casualties…

Packard stops in front of a very specific cot. Occupying the medium sized bed is a very familiar-looking polar bear cub. He’s wide awake, but the bunny laying on his chest with her face just barely poking out the blanket is still fast asleep. The young bear is staring straight up at the ceiling, obviously in very deep thought.

Something is troubling him greatly.

And it’s not the wound on his head.

Gwen is the first one to realize who she’s looking at, but it hits Bucky seconds after. They both gasp and cling to each other in a moment of true shock.

Packard shakes her head at their very bunny-like antics. If she was still alive, she might have needed to take some aspirin. But luckily she’s already dead, so the two younger buns can’t kill her that much more.

The cub slowly turns his head to look at them. He’s not surprised, so he must have been expecting the company.

“Hey, Doc,” he says softly, as to not wake the bunny sleeping on top of him. Her body rises and falls with his chest as he breathes. He’s breathing quite consistently for a zombie.

“Hello again, Barry. I’m back. These are the two I wanted to see you. They’ve been working with my team to help discover more about the undead and the infection as a whole. We’ve gotten stuck on some of the issues we’ve been trying to solve, but I think you can help us,” she says down to him. The bunny stirs slightly and the cub lifts his paw to his lips to urge her to lower her voice.

“Oops, sorry,” Packard whispers.

“Doctor, I don’t understand,” Bucky pipes up. “We saw him die yesterday! He was on the table, and then...what happened?”

“He got back up,” Packard says with a knowing smile. The two bunnies just stare at her. Neither of them had seen him get up, being so lost in their emotions. They assumed someone just took his body away. There’s no way he actually got the hell back up after a bullet to the brain!

“Doctor, that’s...that’s not possible! He was missing part of his frontal lobe! I saw you digging in there! Did...you fix him somehow?” Bucky asks, his large front teeth chattering noisily.

“I don’t think I did much more than clean him up,” Packard admits. “Barry, turn to the side for me. Yes, like that, thank you. See the line here, from where I stitched him up? The skin is healed. He’s actually healing! And at an astonishing rate, as well. He went through a period of a few hours yesterday where his eyes were glowing purple and some kind of steam was leaking from the damaged section of his head. I think that was his brain healing!” Packard cheers while still remembering to keep it down.

Gwen just stares at the same face she had seen the day before. What was an expression locked in pain is now calm and observant. He looked so empty before...but how could someone just heal from a traumatic brain injury like that? In a few hours, no less!

And for a zombie to be healing...this brings up all kinds of new questions for her to answer.

“You said...glowing purple?” Bucky inquires, his teeth nibbling at his claws in thought.

Packard nods.

Bucky snaps.

“It’s the damn nighthowler dose you gave him!” he states confidently, like he’s just discovered what kind of cheese the moon is made of. The others look up at him, coming to the same conclusion.

“That’s...probably it…” Packard mumbles to herself. Gwen throws her arms around the buck and gives him a tiny smooch on the cheek. She doesn’t really know what he’s talking about, but the sudden excitement got the better of her.

The alpaca ignores their ritual flirting and turns back to the cub.

“Barry...did you see anything when you were out? What were you thinking about?” she asks urgently. He looks back up to the ceiling, the memories of his time trapped in his own head still very vivid. Selena snorts once, which brings a small smile to his lips.

“I was in this dark room at first. There were a lot of noises, and I think I heard myself talking, but like...talking to myself in my mind. I could hear my thoughts. Then I heard Selena’s voice calling me over to an area where there were a lot of flashes of light and broken thread things. I started connecting them back together, and...I started remembering things,” he explains to them. The three researches listen intently. Dr. Packard looks around for something to write this down on, but came with empty hooves.

Barry produces a pad of paper and a pen out of nowhere.

“Where did that come from?” Packard asks as she takes it from him. Barry just throws her a small grin and offers a tiny shrug of the shoulders.

“Learned it from my...dad,” he says, the word tingling his tongue as it escapes. The others give him a confused look, but accept his answer anyway. Best not to question something personal like that.

“Okay, can you tell us more about what you saw?” Packard asks him. Barry frowns and looks down at the sleeping bunny kit under his chin. His eyes glaze over sadly as his entire posture seems to deflate a bit.

“Look, can...can we do this later? I just...I just want to spend some time with her before she has to go,” he pleads with the alpaca hovering over him.

Gwen and Bucky tilt their heads at him, but Packard’s expression turns immediately to sympathy. She nods silently and sets the notepad back down on the ground for him to retrieve later. He sees that she’s honoring his wishes and returns her kindness with a thankful nod. The cub goes back to enjoying his time with his sister.

“What do you mean? Where is she going?” Gwen asks, causing Packard to cringe. Bucky looks just as lost, but is remaining silent about it. Barry tries to ignore the inquisitive bunny in favor of watching the sleeping one.

“The survivors...all the living mammals here, they’re...being sent away today,” the alpaca tries to say as sensitively as she can. The cub can hear everything they’re saying. He hasn’t told them to leave yet, and she doesn’t want to depress him even further.

“Really? Wow, I didn’t hear about any of this,” Gwen replies.

“Either did I,” Bucky says suspiciously, shooting a glare at the alpaca. From the way that she swallows, he can tell that she either meant to tell him but forgot, or purposely kept this information from him.

“I...was meaning to tell you. Gwen, I know you’re from another compound a little ways outside the city, so we can’t make you go. But Bucky...I’m...having the living members of the science team go with everyone to Meadowbrooke,” she manages to say. The buck’s glare intensifies but he doesn’t say anything right away. There’s so much he is obviously wanting to spit at her, but he’s too overwhelmed to decide which argument would be best.

“Why.”

It’s barely a question.

It’s more of an accusation.

“Because right now, what the world needs is to preserve what few resources we have left. I know you want to stay and help, but I feel that you’d be doing more good with the rest of the survivors,” she tries to convince him.

Bucky returns her explanation with an unimpressed huff.

“Oh, yeah, totally. One worthless rabbit will make all the difference in the end, right? Have you seen how many of us are still around? At the rate it’s going, we’re going to be the only ones left on the planet! We’ll be the dominant species! And you’re saying that the survival effort needs me to go make even more babies? Is that all I’m apparently good for?” he spits, still remembering to keep his voice down even as he throws his tantrum. Barry watches him cautiously, just in case he forgets. If the buck disturbs Selena’s sleep, he might have to actually kill him with the notepad.

It won’t be pretty.

Gwen watches him nervously, not liking the tension in the air. Usually, she can just walk away if her siblings start fighting. Her mom was the one to always throw out a compromise or break up a squabble.

But her mom isn’t here right now.

And Packard looks like she doesn’t have a better argument to throw his way, so he’s just going to get more and more mad at her. For all he knows, she might just not want his help anymore and is throwing him on the first bus out of there.

Gwen’s mind buzzes with possible things she can say to cool them down. Is there a better solution for all of this? What can they decide on that will benefit and satisfy everyone?

In the ideal situation, Bucky would stay with the science team.

Packard won’t have to worry about her living team members getting attacked.

The survivors will be able to be among the living.

And they’ll need access to what they’ve been working on. They’ll need resources. Gazelle has been able to provide them with samples, but she’s quickly running out of money and research materials.

They don’t even have anymore night howlers after the doses they made for the ZPD…

Wait.

She has an idea.

Before Bucky can raise his voice, wake Selena and bring Barry’s wrath upon himself, Gwen reaches up and tugs him back down to a squatting position. He grunts slightly as he is forcefully bent over to face the doe he’s spent the last day working sleeplessly with.

“What?” he asks, giving her an irritated look that’s not nearly as hostile as the one he was giving his boss.

“What if we move the science team to Bunnyburrow?” she asks, her tone energized with ideas of what they could achieve with access to that many night howlers. They can keep up their research while utilizing what they already know can be done with them!

No wonder they’ve been making night howlers exclusively! They don’t know who found out how the flowers calmed the zombies down, but it makes so much more sense now.

“What do you mean?” Packard asks this time.

“My home! I live in Bunnyburrow with my entire extended family. We’re all living in a walled-off expanse of land right now. We’ve been growing nothing but night howlers!” she tells them. Packard and Bucky both look at her with widening eyes. The alpaca knows how desperately they’ve been needing more material to work with. But there’s no way that a family of rabbits would let a team of partially undead scientists live there with them.

“Gwen...your family wouldn’t let the undead live there,” Bucky tries to tell her, taking the words right out of Packard’s mouth.

Barry’s eyes widen and he looks like he’s trying to burn a hole in the ceiling with his stare.

The cub looks between Selena and the ceiling, trying to work out something in his head. Whatever he’s considering, it’s drawing him out of his depression.

“I could talk to them! They didn’t mind all that much when Judy was there, and she’s dead!” the doe urges as she pulls out her phone and starts navigating through her phone to find her parent’s number. Packard tries to stop her to talk her down, but her mother already picks up by the time the alpaca notices what she’s doing.

Bucky and his boss sigh into their fists, fearing what the possible thread of hope could do to them if they let it sink its teeth into them.

While Gwen is busy trying to convince her folks to let an entire team of undead and living researchers stay at the farm, or at least near it, Packard turns back to the cub on the cot and places a hoof on his shoulder.

He flinches out of his thoughts and looks over at her.

“Just...keep in mind what I asked, Barry. If you could write down what you saw, it would help us a great deal in figuring out what you did to heal yourself so fast,” she begs. Barry’s eyes widen at the prospect of writing down his own experiences.

“Like...a story?”

“Well, if you want to frame it that way...sure, I guess. But just as long as everything you write down is exactly how it happened in your head. It’s very important that it’s accurate,” she answers with a small smile on her face.

Barry is silent for a few moments.

Then he nods to her.

She smiles wider and gives his healing head a gentle rub. The affection is a surprise, but a welcome one. He closes his eyes at the feeling of something giving him a head rub. It feels so nice to be rewarded with soft sensations of support.

If only he had more of it growing up.

“Thank you, Barry,” she says honestly. Before the cub can reply, the doctor is waved over by a very excited-looking Gwen. Bucky has a visibly baffled look on his face, but the beginnings of a loud cheer of excitement are visible.

The alpaca waves at him as she gets up to find out what’s going on with the bunnies.

Meanwhile, Barry’s bunny finally stirs awake after a nice, long and restful sleep. She blinks groggily up at him, her face lighting up when she sees him there but falling when she remembers what being awake means for her.

It’s tomorrow now.

The bus will be leaving sometime today.

Her mood doesn’t even get a chance to brighten before it falls right back down.

But Barry’s doesn’t.

In his head, he’s working out a brand new list of possibilities for his future together with his sister.

Meeting Gwen might just have been the thing to keep him close to Selena.

The answer lies in Bunnyburrow.

An entire fortification filled with living bunnies?

What could be a better solution?

Not only that, but now he has a story to write! His life-long dream of writing his own book might be coming true much sooner than he ever expected it to. And hopefully, if he writes it well enough, it could end up helping a lot of other mammals navigate their way through being undead.

Barry smiles.

It’s going to be beautiful today.


	41. Kits in the Cradle

“And that should about do it!” Duke says as he extends his paw out to the tiger looming over him. Months ago, he hated being around bigger mammals like this. They usually just spelled trouble for him and possible death if he got on their bad side. But everyone at the mansion so far has been very accepting of his presence here.

So standing barely above Chadwick’s knee doesn’t phase the weasel too much. The stitch-covered feline bends down and accepts the red glass orb from Duke’s paw, being extra careful not to accidentally scratch him with his claw. The tiger lifts the orb up to his remaining eye and examines it.

It’s just the right size and glows like a blood diamond. Just the way he wanted it.

“I got some gel you can use to slide it in and keep it from getting infected,” Duke informs the tiger as he reaches into his crafts bag for the ointment.

Schlk

Duke cringes at the sound of a glass eye being forced into place with no lubrication. For anyone living, that sound would be followed by a chorus of agonizing screams of pain. 

Apparently Chadwick still doesn’t feel pain.

The tiger fiddles with the new glass eye of his as it slips more firmly into his previously-empty socket. The space that had been left vacant now being filled leaves the tiger feeling almost whole again. He moves over to the bathroom mirror and examines himself.

A devious grin reaches his lips, his ferocious teeth put on full display. Duke can already tell that he approves of the eye. The ruby-colored glass ball, combined with the numerous bullet holes, makes Chadwick look even more like a killer beast than he did before.

He misses his body from his time as Gazelle’s dancer, but he’s fine with what he’s traded it for. The tiger secretly always fantasized about the end of the world and how long he’d make it alone. He’d be the coolest wasteland survivor ever and even the mutated monsters would tremble before his might.

How ironic is it that he ended up getting infected when he fended off the bear who was devouring his best friend?

He might have made it if he went off by himself and didn’t try to be a hero. But in that moment, seeing Gazelle with her insides spilled all over the ground triggered a fire in him that he still hadn’t been able to recreate to this day.

Being a Siberian tiger, Chadwick knows he is strong enough to match most mammals.

But what he did to that Bear wasn’t anything close to being a fair fight.

Chadwick didn’t get bitten.

The bear did.

The tiger had sunk his teeth into the undead creature with little care for his own fate. He was only vaguely aware of the pieces flying off of his opponent, his jaws not stopping until there was only a tiny black chunk left in his grip.

He made bear confetti.

Gazelle passed while he was fighting, to his great dismay. But he knew going in that she was already doomed. Nobody can survive being hollowed out.

He was just starting to feel his own body starting by to shut down when Gazelle came back. He didn’t hear her coming until she had already jumped on him and bit into his neck.

Chadwick just let her.

He knew he was a goner anyway. At least he would be able to see her up and moving again.

Once she bit him and got a taste of his meat, she calmed back down and slowly came back into her own mind. He remembers the look of horror and concern on her face.

It was the last thing he saw as a living tiger.

Her hoof in his paw was the last thing he felt.

It’s hard to believe that his death was only a month ago. Not needing to sleep really does make each day twice as long.

Chadwick admires the eye for a little while longer before nodding to himself. It’s not a real eye, but it will do. Maybe next time he glares a mammal down, they’ll actually get the hint.

He turns to the weasel with a wide smile.

“Chadwick thanks you! Glass eye is nice! Very nice! Chadwick will strike terror into hearts of those who want to hurt friends now. Weasel makes very good items, very good. Must have had years of training!” he laughs jovially, his chest heaving wildly with each ground-shaking guffaw.

Duke can feel the vibrations in his paws from the tiger’s mighty laugh. He gives Chadwick a grin, the feeling of being useful flowing through him yet again.

He hopes this never changes.

“Chadwick will miss you, little friend,” the tiger says as he calms back down. Duke’s shoulders tense up when he hears these words.

Such kind words with such an icy meaning.

“You’ll miss me? Why, you going somewhere?” the weasel asks, trying to keep the sound of anxiety hidden from his voice. Chadwick blinks down at him with his brand new eye, a look of confusion adorning his face.

“Did Gazelle not say?” Chadwick mumbles, unsure of himself. He’s not usually the one who has to deliver important information to anyone but his boss. He is not the best at managing the feelings of other mammals.

His less-than-perfect grasp of the language doesn’t help in the slightest.

“Tell me what? She hasn’t spoken to me since…” Duke cringes at the memory of the last few words she said to him when the raid was starting. The few dismissive words she said to him were so cold and vacant.

It was like he lost the friend he just made.

And she hasn’t made any effort to see him since. He knows that she’s beyond busy trying to take care of the survivors, but he can’t help feeling forgotten.

It might just be the side effect of having a true friend for the first time. He got too used to their back and forth that he didn’t remember to keep himself distant.

He’s just a weasel, after all. Gazelle might be dead, but she’s still famous. And a sort of freedom fighter for the survivors now.

“Ah, well...Hm. After meeting, Gazelle, Bogo and Fox Bitch decided to have all survivors moved to safe camp in Meadowbrooke. They are getting bus for all mammals as we talk. Will probably leave sometime in afternoon,” Chadwick tells the increasingly forlorn weasel.

“What’s...what’s happening here? Who is staying?” Duke practically pleads, hoping against odds that he might get an uplifting answer.

“Well...Gazelle. Maybe science team, but Chadwick heard whispers of other plan to relocate to Bunny Land. Do not know details,” he admits.

“And...me?” Duke whimpers.

“You shall go with survivors, Chadwick assumes,” the tiger answers simply. He doesn’t understand just how hurt the weasel is to hear this.

Duke’s entire world comes crashing down around him.

Everything he’s built here, from his new physique to the respect he’s gained from the others...it’s all going to go away. He’ll have to start over from scratch, and among a city of survivors, he might as well just resign himself to selling his work on the street again.

Gazelle is sending him away.

And she isn’t even the one to tell him.

Something breaks inside of Duke’s chest. He’d assume it was his heart if he believed he ever had one to begin with.

He finally had something to be proud of.

And after only a couple weeks, it’s being taken from him. Just like every other good thing to ever happen to him. It’s like the universe itself hates him and wants to make sure to always beat him back down every time he rises up at all.

His time with Gazelle was the happiest he’s ever been. The little teasing game they play, mixed with the genuine conversations they’ve had, made Duke feel like he was more than just a conniving mustelid.

He was a friend to someone who needed one.

But Gazelle isn’t like him. She’s well known and already has a lot of friends. To her, Duke was probably just a nuisance this whole time. Was he annoying her?

All those times he climbed onto her head...he was just bothering her, wasn’t he?

Chadwick sees the weasel’s energy drain out of him. He was expecting Duke to be bummed out, but not for the life to leave his eyes. The tiger has seen this little mammal grow and change during his time here, but now his posture is reverting back to the way he used to be.

The confrontational and defensive side of Duke, the one afraid to let anyone close to his heart, is coming back.

And Chadwick has no idea what to say to him to make him feel any better.

Before the tiger can say anything else, Duke slips out of the bathroom and shuffles his way down the hallway, in a daze.

He wants to cry but that would solve nothing.

Duke just needs to talk to her. He has to hear it from her own mouth that she doesn’t want him there anymore. It’s the least she can do. As long as she can be upfront about why this is happening...he’ll accept it.

He doesn’t want to leave.

But he still trusts her. If she says that he should go, then he will.

He wanders through the legs of so many unfamiliar survivors. These ones don’t know who he is. They never saw how much work he can get done when he’s motivated to help.

And the looks of distrust they give him bring him flying back to his days on the street.

A mother picks up her child as he passes.

An otter places his paws over his pockets to make sure the weasel doesn’t steal his belongings.

Nobody wants to get close to him.

To them, he might as well just be another member of the undead. Just one more gross thing they don’t want touching them.

It hurts.

It hurts him so bad.

He’s just trash on the street again. Nobody’s friend and everybody’s enemy. The first one to blame when something goes missing. Existing without anyone else’s consent.

A bother.

Duke finds himself standing in Gazelle’s room feeling like a stranger here. He’s been in here plenty of times during their talks, and a few times when he taught her how to play poker, but now the room feels like it doesn’t want him either.

She’s not in here.

Maybe she’s in the kitchen again talking things over like she’s some sort of military leader. He knows that she doesn’t like doing it. Yet she’s shouldered the responsibility without hesitation because she knows she can make an impact.

But the longer she leads, the less of her remains.

She needs to remember who she is and what she loves before the Gaz he knows and loves is lost for good.

He knows what she is under all the glitz and glam.

Gazelle is a kind-hearted artist who displays her emotions not just in her music, but in her messages. Just like Nick’s bunny, Gazelle is driven to make the world a better place, even if she has to give away her dreams to do it.

Duke doesn’t want to see that happen. She might not see him as a friend anymore, if she ever did to begin with, but letting her passion for music die is one thing he won’t put up with.

The last thing he’ll do in this house is remind her of who she is.

The weasel grapples with her guitar, which is much too big for him to easily carry. After managing to slide it out of its case, he grips it by the bottom of the neck and lifts it up as high off of the ground as he can. He is careful not to bump or drag the instrument.

He makes his way back out of her room, doing his best to ignore the passing mammals who look at him like he’s obviously just stealing the guitar.

They can go choke for all he cares.

None of them are brave enough to stop him, so they must be okay with Gazelle getting her property stolen. Yeah, great moral high ground they got going.

He lugs the heavy wooden object over to the kitchen, where he’s relieved to see Gazelle sitting with a few others.

He almost walks in to interrupt them, but the serious tone of the conversation they’re having stops him.

Mrs. Thistle, Gazelle, Bogo, the leader of the living and a few other undead mammals are going over the route they’ll be taking to get to Meadowbrooke.

The process of moving over a thousand living mammals across that much land will be tricky. They are just now acquiring the amount of busses they need, but each bus will increase the length of the convoy and will only make their group more and more noticeable.

It’s not the kind of apocalypse where the roads are empty and the land is barren.

Tons of mammals still use the highways outside Zootopia, almost as often as before the infection. A line of twenty busses packed to the brim with living animals will only serve to make them a target.

Duke listens to them discussing the possibilities of traveling one bus at a time, with staggered departure times. It would split the group up and reduce their chances if they were to be chased, but would be much more tactical in terms of remaining unseen by the undead population.

He looks down at the guitar.

And suddenly he feels very stupid.

What, was he just going to ask her to sing a song for him and she’ll just get better? And what does better even mean in this case?

Gazelle is an adult. Probably even a bit older than him. She doesn’t need someone telling her how she should be living her life...death...whatever it is now.

And Duke can’t ask her to change back to the way she used to be just because he wants her attention again. That’s selfish and a complete disregard for the mammals she is helping.

She might be stressed out right now, but helping those around her is her dream. Her singing and dancing were just the old methods she used to make the world better.

Maybe it’s okay if she decides to take up the stern life of a resistance leader.

He hopes it makes her happy in the end.

The weasel looks down at the guitar one more time, cursing himself for even thinking he should try to say something to her. She is too busy for someone like him. She’s too important to worry about a good-for-nothing weasel.

Though it stings to realize how badly he’s been fooling himself the whole time, it’s a bit of a relief. He thought he could have had a good life this whole time. It’s comforting to know that his life before was the best he could have hoped for. It wasn’t all just a waste.

As he shuffles away to return Gazelle’s guitar to her room before she notices it’s gone, he accidentally bumps the bottom of it on the wall leading into the kitchen. A loud, acoustic hollow sound fills the room and draws the attention of everyone at the table to where he had just been. Luckily, he’s already hidden so he has a chance to make his escape.

He shuffles quickly down the hallway, keeping the guitar away from any more surfaces that can potentially damage it and give away his location.

Not that a weasel carrying a guitar made for a larger mammal is inconspicuous at all.

But he really doesn’t want to be called out for having her guitar out of its c-

“Duke?” comes a familiar voice. The weasel curses to himself as Mrs. Thistle calls out to him. The most he’s said to her was the brief conversation they had when he was making her glass eye. Beyond that, he doesn’t trust her enough with his emotions to turn back to talk to her.

Hopefully, she’ll just leave him alone if he keeps walking.

His tail is dragging, making it very hard to act like nothing's wrong. From his posture alone, the aging feline can tell that he’s very upset about something.

“Duke? What’s the matter?” she calls out, but he just increases his pace. Duke mumbles a silent prayer that she will stop following him.

She does not stop following him.

His prayer turns into another string of curses.

He’s almost at Gazelle’s room now. If he slips in there, maybe he can hide under something until she goes away. Not very likely, since she probably has an enhanced sense of smell, but hopefully she’ll just leave out of disinterest.

Just as he’s about to enter the door to Gazelle’s room, the guitar is seized by a much stronger force and halted. The sudden stop almost sends him to the ground.

“WHAT?!” he spits back at her as she tugs him gently back up to a standing position. She still has her paw wrapped around the neck of the guitar.

Thistle looks stunned at how hostile he’s behaving already. The whole time she’s known him, he’s been nothing but kind and helpful to anyone who needs it.

“What is this all about?” she asks, making sure not to sound like she’s accusing him of anything. He was ready to deflect her calling him a thief, so the genuine concern in her voice breaks through his mask.

His bottom lip trembles slightly as he tries to maintain his glare. It falters for a second and she’s able to see just how much pain he’s going through.

He’s not just upset.

He’s given up. His self-worth is at an all-time low. She might go as far as to say he’s having an existential crisis.

But why?

She looks between Duke and the guitar. Thistle’s mind wanders back to when she watched the weasel and Gazelle mess with each other back and forth. They had a little game going that was just the sweetest thing to witness. And yesterday, when he convinced her to go singing in public, she came back in such a lovely mood.

Her mood was instantly dashed the moment she returned home and found that another raid was starting. The look on Duke’s face when she robotically told him to get off her head broke her heart.

Now here he is, on the day where the living are going to start getting sent away, holding onto the guitar like he’s a kit wanting to hear a bedtime story from a parent too busy to bother.

With a look of shocked pity, she understands.

He feels forgotten and abandoned. And for a weasel like him who’s been living most of his life alone with nothing but enemies to keep him company, being told that his one friend is shipping him off to live elsewhere must be truly devastating.

His eyes, though they try to convey bitterness and anger, are empty inside. The spark of excitement she’s known him for is dimmed to the point of almost being snuffed entirely.

“Oh, you poor thing…” Thistle coos as she reaches down and cradles the weasel to her chest, the guitar held firmly in her other paw. Duke looks up at her with a bewildered expression, not knowing what the crazy cat is doing. They’re not close enough to be cuddling like this. No one is close enough to him for this!

“What the-?! Lady, put me down!” he demands, but his struggling doesn’t reflect the tone of his voice. She’s holding him like a kit.

The way he never got to be held before. Something in his mind tingles loudly, screaming at him to accept the affection. He might not ever get a chance to feel it again.

Before he can object, Thistle is carrying him back to the kitchen. He knows that he doesn’t want to confront Gazelle right now, but at this point, it’s inevitable. It might be better to just get this conversation over with so he can put his foolish hopes to rest.

Better to be realistic...right?

All heads turn back to Thistle as she re-enters the eating area filled with figureheads. Duke knows he doesn’t have a place here. Even at his best, he’s just a helper. Just being around where the fates of a thousand mammals are being decided makes his whole body tremble.

Duke can feel the eyes on him. The others are no doubt wondering why Thistle brought back a random weasel to the table.

They must be looking around for sanitary wipes to rub the area down with once he leaves.

He sneaks the tiniest glance over just as Gazelle turns around to see him. He cringes his deepest cringe as his eyes meet hers.

Her eyes widen as she looks between Thistle, the guitar and the weasel. There aren’t many scenarios she can imagine as for what she’s looking at.

“Duke? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” she says with so much concern in her voice. Why doesn’t she sound indifferent?

Why is she looking at him like that?

Why does she look sad?

It doesn’t make any sense!

She should be mad at him for interrupting their meeting!

“I think he wanted to hear you play a song,” Thistle says from above him. He turns up to the large feline, shooting her a confused look. She just winks down at him.

“A...song?”

“Yes. And after all we’ve been through lately, I think I could honestly use a little break as well. Bogo? Skye? Any objections?”

“NO!” Bogo shouts instantly, startling the rest of the mammals in the room. He realizes just how loud he was and glances from side to side, seeing if the others are staring at him.

They are.

“What I mean is, ah...no, I don’t have any objections. None at all! Go ahead whenever you want!” he stutters, trying to shift the attention from himself. He tries to act nonchalant about how excited he is, but nobody at the table is buying it.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt,” Skye waves dismissively. “Should probably get everyone in high spirits before we head out. Can’t have them panicking at every bump in the road.”

Duke looks around the table at everyone, noticing that the ones that know him don’t look annoyed or put-off by his presence. Better yet, they’re going along with what he was planning!

“I...don’t know, I...am very rusty…” Gazelle mumbles timidly. Bogo forgets that he was just trying to act natural and slams his fist onto the kitchen table, finally stressing the crack and shattering it into chunks. Everyone sitting there yells in surprise and jumps back away from the table shards.

All eyes turn to Chief Bogo, who is holding the same pose he was in the moment the table gave out under the force of his strike.

A tiny squeak leaves his mouth.

He’s absolutely mortified.

Gazelle sighs and slaps her thighs.

“Welp. Guess that settles that! Until I get a replacement meeting table, it looks like we’re on recess,” she announces to everyone. Even Skye offers a thankful smile, the endless talking having been taking a hard toll on her sanity. The dead don’t need to sleep, but she does!

“I will gather living. We meet outside?” Chadwick asks, appearing out of nowhere and looming over Thistle and Duke. The trembling weasel jumps a bit, but Thistle heard him coming from a mile away.

“Yes, thank you, Chadwick. Guess I will be needing this, then,” Gazelle says pleasantly as she reaches for her guitar. Before she can reach it, Thistle lifts Duke up with her other arm and sets him down gently on top of Gazelle’s head, right between her horns.

It’s his favorite spot to sit.

It’s the spot she kicked him off of. And after that, she didn’t speak to him.

Duke’s body freezes solid as he mentally prepares himself for the trauma of getting forced away again. He doesn’t want to see the look on her face as she yanks him off. That cold, emotionless look haunts his vision.

She’s going to shove him away.

There’s no way she’ll let him stay up here.

“Oh, hi, Duke,” she says up to him.

The weasel’s heart skips a beat and very nearly loses composure of himself. He glances up at Thistle, who winks at him again and offers him a knowing grin.

The world that he thought had crumbled away from him suddenly rebuilds itself around him. Gazelle is treating him like she did before the raid. She’s not telling him to leave and she’s making eye contact with him.

She doesn’t hate him.

She doesn’t think he’s a worthless weasel, does she?

“Oh, that reminds me, I wanted to talk to you about something,” she mentions as she accepts the guitar from Thistle and begins making her way to the front lawn. There will be plenty of armed guards around the property so she isn’t worried about any curious undead noses sniffing around hoping to get a bite.

Duke flinches.

Here it comes.

She’s going to tell him that she’s sending him away to Meadowbrooke with the rest of the survivors. And he will follow her orders, no matter how much he wants to stay.

Because she’s telling him to his face what she thinks is for the best.

He’s ready to hear these words.

He won’t cry or beg to stay.

He’ll continue being a helpful weasel even if he has to do it from a country away from his friend.

“Do you know anything about mounting machine guns to the tops of school busses?” she asks innocently, her tone completely serious.

Duke blinks.

He blinks again to make sure his first blink wasn’t a lie.

“Uh...no. Can’t say that I do. Why?”

Gazelle grins deviously up at her weasel friend.


	42. Goodbyes

“Ma’am, we have some undead mammals waiting at the gate. Do you know these two?” one of the living guards asks as he holds the tablet up for Gazelle to look at.

From his perch on top of her head, Duke peers down to catch a glimpse of whoever might be trying to get in.

His eyes widen as he spots a very anxious looking red fox vixen and her mate strapped to her chest. He knows these two! The two eyes staring up aimlessly at the security camera are his own work, after all.

...And they’re facing separate directions again.

He needs to find a way to keep those things straight. It’s easier with solid colored eyes, like the one he made Chadwick, since there is no true pupil at all to get misaligned.

But Marian always finds a way to spin hers around in her head so that they’re either making her look very silly or very scary.

Duke can’t see her as anything but motherly, though. She had treated him with such kindness back at the apartment. Nick and Finnick are lucky for having been able to be raised by her.

Gazelle recognizes the same head that had somehow managed to roll over and destroy many wolves during the first raid. His maniacal laughter while doing so might have actually demoralized the attacking force enough to turn the tide of the battle.

Seeing him zooming around like an orange blur in a ball helped rally the others into going practically savage to defend their living refugees. The wolves had higher numbers, but the defenders definitely had the insanity factor on their side.

Even Gazelle remembers the vicious thoughts going through her mind when she felt that foolish wolf charging her from behind.

A single feral shout and a headbutt backwards had sent both of her very long, very sharp horns flying through the back of the canine’s head. She didn’t realize that she had pulled his eyes out until someone else mentioned her new accessories.

That was a side of her she never knew she had.

She saw herself as a fighter, but never a killer.

But the motivation to save the survivors was enough to get her to allow her hooves to get bloody.

Decapitating the Alpha is the most violent thing she’s ever done. She hopes to keep it that way.

“You can let them in! They are friends,” Gazelle urges the armored mammals. They nod and scurry off down to the gate.

All around them, animals are flowing out of the house and taking spots along the lawn. The property has a lot of open space, given the thousand mammals some comfortable room to move around and mingle.

Along the fence to the property, a mixture of Gazelle’s helpers and Skye’s troops defend the perimeter. With this many living mammals in one place, they’ll need to keep on their highest alert. They already have to toss a sloth back over the fence.

Watching him roll down the hill was pretty amusing though.

Right outside the door to Gazelle’s house, Nick is planted firmly on a bench with Judy secured tightly to his chest. She hasn’t moved or said anything in a little while, too distraught to function correctly. Nick’s eyes are locked on the grass under his paws, his mind completely lost in thought.

He wants to stay.

But even Judy agreed…

They can’t sit back and let the world die, if there’s even the slightest bit they can do to help. And with the population of survivors dipping so low, Nick knows that he’s needed.

It feels almost like he’s being drafted to go to war.

Down to the tearful goodbyes and promises to return. And return he will.

But when, he doesn’t know.

When things start to even out in the world. Maybe when vaccines are created and protections are put in place. But maybe even before then, if he decides he’s done enough and is okay with turning.

Judy said she wants him to go.

She’s not happy about it, but she understands that it’s just something that needs to happen if the world is going to have a shot at getting better.

He swore to her that he wouldn’t be with anyone else physically, even if he will probably be the father of many. She didn’t ask him to say this, he just decided to make the promise on his own.

Judy doesn’t know how realistic his promise is, but she thought it was sweet regardless. The thought of him being with countless other vixens was definitely weighing heavy on her mind.

As the extra busses were brought in and worked on, the odd couple spent as much time together as they possibly could. It started off a bit light, with them joking and teasing each other like old times. As the time passed, their jovial mood sunk lower and lower until they were just sitting in uncomfortable silence.

And then she hugged him.

He hugged her back.

They’ve been hugging since then, completely content with just staying glued to each other forever. She might be crying, but he can’t tell. She’s not moving at all but his shirt is feeling a bit damper than it used to be.

This sucks.

Why couldn’t he just have let her bite him back at the apartment? Then he wouldn’t be having to make any decisions anymore. The survival territory would grow with or without him. It could have been just him and Judy, dead together, going to work like the partners they are.

But now she’s probably going to be getting a new partner. All that time spent training and learning to be the best cop he could be...wasted.

Of course, he knows it’s not all about him. It’s not even all about them. At this point, it’s all about all the mammals who won’t exist in the future if they don’t take care of the world as it is right now.

So both fox and bunny have to struggle.

For the good of the world.

Next to the morose couple sits another part of the same family, even if not related by blood. Finnick and Bianca sit together, their eyes looking out at the afternoon sun covering the city.

It’s their home. Dead or alive, they will always know Zootopia for what it has given them. They have lived troubled but fulfilling lives so far, and they know that plenty more awaits them in the future.

They are just happy that their adoptive son was able to come up with a way to stay closer to his sister. Having her move to Bunnyburrow instead of Meadowbrooke was something they would have never thought of.

Having the science team go there as well to progress their research was another stroke of brilliance. They just can’t believe that the Hopps family was willing to let some of the undead into their walls. Maybe they want to be the ones to say they helped find the cure.

Whatever their reasoning, it’s creating a situation where not only the science team gets to stick together, but Selena can live only a couple hours outside of Zootopia as opposed to days. They’ll probably be able to see each other every weekend, if not more.

Plus, they’ve already been promised phones to stay in contact. This had earned both Finn and Bianca big hugs from the two. Gazelle even offered to pay for them, once her finances were back in order.

It’s the best situation they could come up with. Plus, it’s only until they’re a bit older and can make their own decisions. Selena already whispered to Barry that when she turns sixteen, she’s taking him on the adventure they had originally been on. Around the world, just the two of them, like it should be.

This earned a concerned expression from the cub when told him. He wouldn’t mind going out to see the world again, but something drastic will have to change for him to let her wander around as a living bunny.

Regardless, the two are in much higher spirits than they were earlier in the day. Selena was practically jumping for joy when Gazelle said yes to Barry’s plan, leaving her worn and breathless now. She sits on top of the cub’s head, her new favorite spot.

She got jealous when she saw the weasel riding Gazelle’s head.

So of course Barry let her try it. Now the hard part is getting her off again. She’s not leaving today, since she has a different destination. Finnick said they would probably be going to drop her off tomorrow or the next day.

The fennec wants to see his brother off.

They might not see each other for a long time after this, and as close as they are, he can’t imagine going more than a week without seeing Nick’s smug mug. It’s a bittersweet feeling, seeing someone he respects so much going off to help save the world.

He would rather he stay and just let Judy turn him, but he knows that his brother is a different breed. Nick actually developed the ability to put others before himself, which is uncommon for a fox, according to public opinion.

He also won’t admit it, but Finn is slightly jealous of how Nick gets to go make good use of his equipment. He didn’t get his bitten clean off. 

Lucky bastard.

Judy said she was okay with it, though.

Right?

All around them, mammals they don’t know are getting ready for whatever it is they were all called outside for in the first place. A lot of them are skittish, wondering why they had to leave the relative safety of the fortified mansion. The outside has spelled nothing but danger for them so far.

Gazelle and Duke had ducked away to look at one of the busses while they waited for the rest of the survivors to arrive.

Nick and the rest of his group had briefly turned to listen to the sounds of frantic banging and drilling. The noise had only gone on for a few minutes before the two returned covered in grease and metal shavings. But they were both absolutely tickled by something.

What was all that?

Whatever it was, it’s got them happier than anyone else around them. Even Selena isn’t completely happy.

She still has to move away from her brother, after all. Finnick and Bianca can’t just up and move out of the city. They wouldn’t be able to afford anything close to Bunnyburrow and Finn is personally attached to city living anyway.

So Barry will have to live in the city with his adoptive parents. At least under she’s sixteen and then she can come take him away and they’ll see everything the world has to offer.

The bunny squirms in excitement just as the thought of how much fun they’ll have.

It’s surely worth living with scores of other rabbit kits swarming around her at all times.

...Right?

She actually doesn’t know. She was part of the only litter of kits her parents had. Being one of twelve is much different than being one of twelve million. Maybe the sheer numbers will keep Gwen’s mother off of her back.

Wait...if Gwen is Judy’s sister, then Gwen’s mother…

Selena gasps out loud, startling the softly snoozing cub above her.

“I’M GOING TO BE A HOPPS!” Selena shouts in Barry’s face, scaring him even further. The cub’s eyes widen as he tries to process why she’s yelling at him. Her excited giggling and squirming lets him know she’s not hurt, allowing him to quickly calm himself.

He thought he might have accidentally scratched her or something horrible like that.

The bunny dances in place while her brother watches in amusement. Seeing her overwhelmed with joy is a refreshing change of pace for him. She’s normally going through something traumatic involving his perceived death.

She’ll probably need therapy for all of this at some point in the future. He’ll make sure to be there with her when she needs him, even if he has to travel to Bunnyburrow by himself. He won’t be able to drive for a few more years so he’s at the mercy of his parents’ schedules when it comes to how often he’ll be able to visit.

It’s better than her being a literal country away though.

Plus, phones!

He’s never had a phone. His living situation growing up didn’t allow him the luxury. Though he’s still young, so maybe he’s not completely alone in not having one.

But thanks to his parents and Gazelle, he’ll be able to stay in constant communication with his sister from her new home. It’ll be like she isn’t hours away from him. He might even still be able to read to her at night!

He just won’t be able to tuck her in.

Or wake her up.

Or make her food.

Or do anything besides talk to her over the phone.

Barry wraps his arms around his sister and hugs her a bit closer. She gives him a curious look, trying to figure out why his mood dropped so suddenly. To her, she can’t wait to get started!

Even if his solution puts them in a better situation, Barry still knows that it’s going to be a jarring change for both of them. They’ve only known each other for a month or so, but they’ve been practically glued to each other ever since. Separating for an undetermined amount of time might actually put a strain on their relationship.

What if she gets too caught up with all of her new brothers and sisters?

What if she stops calling him?

What if she forgets about him?

He doesn’t know if he could handle being forgotten. After years of barely being a presence in his own home, he quickly latched onto the prospect of being needed. He loved having someone there that needed to rely on him. It made him feel like he wasn’t the mistake his birth parents always told him he was. But if she finds a new support structure, where does that leave him?

Barry’s eyes dim at the thought. Selena notices and spins herself around to face him directly. She has that fierce look in her eye again and Barry knows right away that she’s not going to let him away from her before he tells her what’s bothering him.

“Okay, spill it. What’s up?” she demands firmly. Straight to the point, as she usually is with him.

“Nothing…” he tells her, but he knows it’s futile. He’s just giving himself more time to gather his thoughts and plan out what he wants to actually say to her.

She lifts a brow and gives him a half-frown.

Her classic unimpressed glare.

“Okay, okay...I’m just...worried…” he admits vaguely. She waits for a few seconds for him to keep going. When he doesn’t, she spins her paw in slow circles and signals that she’s expecting more of an answer than that lame excuse.

“Worried...about what?” she asks impatiently.

“That you’ll forget about me,” he manages to say. Selena flinches at these words and even Finn and Bianca have to turn their heads when they hear him. Barry keeps his eyes locked on the ground, not wanting to see the looks they’re giving him.

It’s quiet for too long after his admission.

His eyes start to move up slowly, not wanting them to know he’s looking. But he catches sight of two mammals he had hoped to never see again.

They are walking out of the house to join the rest of the survivors on the lawn. The two looming figures covered in dirty white fur bring back memories he wishes he had forgotten. Why did he have to reconnect those threads? If he knew what he was bringing back into his mind, he wouldn’t have bothered.

His eyes shoot right back down to the dirt. They didn’t see him, right?

They’re walking away so they must not have seen him. Though...they might have just walked away faster if they saw him. They were finally free from him. Why would they willingly seek out the one they always wanted to be rid of?

How are they here? How are they alive? How is it that they made it here without getting infected? Why is he the only one in his family to die?

It’s not fair.

Selena notices the cub’s increased tension and sudden trembling. She glances from behind her to see what he saw, and her eyes immediately fall onto the forms of the two polar bears she had seen the previous night. It doesn’t take her more than a second to figure out the source of his anxiety.

Finnick and Bianca move closer to him, worried about his sudden state of frozen panic.

“Barry? Barry, are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Bianca asks, gripping both of his shoulders to let him know that she’s there for him. Finnick jumps up to the other side of him, making it so the cub is surrounded on all sides by mammals he knows and loves.

Finnick follows Selena’s sudden glare.

He spots the two disheveled polar bears stomping their way through the crowd, looking like they’re upset that they have to be around so many small mammals. The male keeps using his knees to shove other mammals out of the way so he can get by.

The fennec turns back to Barry and sees that the cub is shaking even more now, his posture closing in on itself. Selena has to hop off of his lap as he brings his knees to his chest and assumes a sitting fetal position.

The cub hides his face in his legs.

It’s clear to the three surrounding him that he’s defending himself from something.

“What’s going on?” Bianca asks helplessly. Selena turns to the polar bears and points a harsh finger at them. The arctic vixen spies the two adult bears but doesn’t understand right away.

“I think they’re his parents,” Selena practically growls.

Finnick and Bianca look at the two bears in a whole new light. The way that Barry is trembling in fear like he’s about to be attacked, mixed with how physically threatening the male is being towards everyone around him, clue them in to what is wrong.

These are Barry’s parents. Barry is afraid of them to the point of shutting down just from seeing them a good distance away. His instant acceptance of having two foxes he hasn’t known for all that long being his new guardians has a brand new meaning.

Finnick recalls something he said, back before the most recent raid.

He told Judy that they would watch over Barry until they found his real parents.

Barry had reacted negatively to that, but hadn’t said anything. Up until now, Finnick didn’t know why he flinched the way he did just from hearing that he might have to go back to his birth parents at some point.

But now he does.

Those two monsters abused this poor cub.

From the way Barry is rubbing his arms to soothe himself, almost like trying to make a bruise stop hurting, Finnick can tell that the boy has been on the receiving end of more than a few beatings.

He would know.

It’s the same kind of living situation that the fennec escaped from himself before being adopted by Marian and growing up with Nick by his side.

Finnick snarls in the direction of the bears.

He has a bat in each paw as he stomps towards them through the grass, completely at the mercy of his own violent urges. Bianca is up to stop him in an instant.

The fox can recall the feeling of being struck by someone he was supposed to trust to take care of him. That deep, agonizing sensation of betrayal mixed with hopelessness. He thought for years that he wasn’t worth being loved, simply because the two that spat him out couldn’t bring themselves to show him any.

It took Marian a long time to get it through his head that he wasn’t a lost cause. And the whole time she tried, he acted out and misbehaved just because he couldn’t understand why he shouldn’t. If all he felt was rage, and he wasn’t worth fixing, then why should he try to be better?

Even after the slow process of healing under Marian’s loving care, he still knows the feeling all too well. And the idea that Barry, one of the kindest mammals he’s ever had the pleasure of knowing, has been at the receiving end of this same treatment...it boils his very soul.

How did he turn out so nice?

How did he keep himself from striking out at anyone who crossed his path?

How did he end up being such a great brother to Selena?

He’s selfless to a fault, and it just doesn’t make sense to Finnick. This cub somehow pushed through his own traumas to focus on what those around him are going through.

Before he can reduce the two survivors to a pulp, his mate yanks him off the ground and bolts back to the bench with him snarling the whole way. Some of the living mammals move away from the apparently-feral undead mammal, in fear for their lives.

The polar bears don’t even look at him to see how close they were to death.

“Finnick! Finn! SWEETIE, CALM DOWN!” she demands loudly, shaking his much smaller body to try snapping him out of his murder trance. His eyes are glowing red, but the color slowly fades away as he takes in the sight of her face looking back at him.

Tears of fury leak down his cheeks as he points behind him to the only two true monsters among them.

“THEY BEAT HIM!” he shouts back into Bianca’s face. Her face freezes in horror. A bright red glow starts to form in her own eyes, but dims when she hears the sniffling noises coming from her. She turns her head and sees Selena trying to comfort the cub, her soft shushing doing little to calm him down.

For Barry, it’s like a nightmare.

If his parents are here, then Finnick will give him back to them!

The world is just tormenting him again.

It wants him to suffer.

Instead of joining her mate in tearing apart a couple of beasts who clearly deserve it, she continues back to the bench and joins her adoptive son. She sets Finnick on the other side of Barry, while Selena is pressed up against him.

“Those aren’t his parents,” Bianca starts, though her voice trembles with hidden rage. The others look up at her in confusion, both willing to argue with her on that point. But she continues before they can.

“That’s not his family. Being related by blood does not mean having to forgive or ignore the harm mammals can do to one another. Maybe they’re related by blood. But that does not mean he must acknowledge them. If he does not want them to exist in his life, then they will not. Barry, we are your family, and we will never make you go back to them. Do you understand me?” Bianca says firmly, leaving little room for argument.

The cub isn’t shaking anymore, but doesn’t dare lift his head up. If he does, he knows that he will see them standing there in the crowd and his meltdown will start all over again.

Bianca understands what’s going through his mind and gathers the other two in for a tight hug, using their bodies as a shield from the world around him. When he offers them the slightest peek to see what they’re doing, he notices that all he can see are them.

They’re blocking the sight of his parents from view.

His entire world is the three concerned faces of his true family.

Finnick, Bianca and Selena are his guardians now. While he is usually the one to protect those around him, the feeling of being defended is quite the revelation.

Instead of pain, he’s experiencing warmth.

And it’s amazing.

The cub chokes back another cry and wraps his arms around all three of them to bring them into his embrace. He never wants this feeling to end. They make him happier than he ever thought he could be, and all they had to do was give a crap about him.

Off to the side of the crowd, a short distance away, two unhappy polar bears stand waiting for something to happen. They’re oblivious to the amount of love being shared behind them. They’ll never know that they will never experience the same level of joy as Barry and his real family. They will forever be missing out on something they will never be able to find. To Barry, they might as well just be ghosts in his head. Nothing more.

Their loss.

Just to the side of Barry’s family, Nick and Judy share a relieved hug with Marian and Corduroy. Nick rubs the top of Corduroy’s head briefly, letting him know that he appreciates what the body-less tod is doing for his mother. This extracts a wide smile from the previously-sullen fox. Nick likes him just the way he is, and isn’t expecting more out of him than he can possibly provide.

What he CAN provide is company. And for Marian, that’s all she really needs.

Judy briefed Nick’s mother over the phone on what happened and what is happening. The vixen was shocked to learn that everybody was in danger yet again and she wasn’t there to help. But what could she have done? A blind fox wouldn’t have been able to stand up against actual firearms. Plus, with there being no living fatalities inflicted, the survivors were able to trust the undead just a bit more.

Knowing that the tigers had held back and spared their lives only increased the respect being shown to the zombie forces offering their help.

“...And...you’re sure this is what you want to do…?” Marian asks weakly. The thought of losing her son for years or longer is more painful than she can process correctly.

“The way we’re thinking is...that it shouldn’t be about what I want right now. That can come later, after I’ve done my part in helping the effort. And once I come back, I can do whatever I want,” Nick tries to explain to her, though he struggles to convey the amount of emotion that was put into this decision. His mother’s eyes stare around him, but he is used to that at this point.

He focuses more on her brow to determine her mood.

And right now, it’s furrowed. 

“But...what if you don’t come back?” she asks, her voice cracking under the weight of her own words. She knows that plans like this have a tendency to change course. No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy, or however the saying goes.

“I will. I promise,” he states confidently. “And maybe you’ll have a few grandkits, like you’ve been wanting for years now.”

Marian blinks, her ears snapping to Judy to listen for any signs that Nick’s careless appeal to her desires as a mother may have hurt Judy in some way.

But Judy remains unflinching.

She knows what he’s going there to do. They’ve already discussed it at length. He’s probably going to father more kits than her own father. Even if he doesn’t see them, they’ll still be his but not hers.

She’s okay with this. The world is bigger than her desire to be his bunny. She knows that she would have never been able to provide him with kits anyway. At some point in the future, they would have had to do some kind of surrogate program.

For a mixed-species couple like them, it was never going to be easy.

And if a few years away from each other is all it’s going to take for her to finally get the prize she’s been wanting since that day under the bridge, then so be it. She trusts Nick to stay true to his word. He will be back and he will be her fox once more.

She needs him to.

“...I’ll miss you, sweetie…” Marian says with a more unstable tremble in her voice. She reaches forward and clings to her son, accidentally smushing her mate against Nick’s chest as she does so. Nick hugs her back as tightly as he can while trying to stay mindful of Corduroy. Getting accidentally cut by one of the tod’s teeth would be an anticlimactic way to end his adventure.

Nick pats his mother’s back.

He remembers when she towered over him, but now she’s a fair bit shorter.

She’s given him such a great life, despite all the obstacles holding her back. He hates having to hurt her like this, but the fate of the world keeps teasing his morality.

He knows he would rather stay.

But that would be selfish, and the last thing the world needs right now is a self-serving fox. And it’s not like he won’t ever see her again. She’ll still be able to call and chat, as long as Meadowbrooke has an infrastructure set up. Since it’s an existing country that’s just being repurposed, it should have everything he needs to keep in contact with everyone he loves.

And one day, when things are a bit brighter, he’ll come back and he’ll give everyone the biggest hug he can. He’ll be with Judy, regardless of her physical state. If they have something to keep mammals from turning by then, great.

But if not, he won’t let it stop him. He’ll just be a late joiner to the ranks of the undead.

And he’ll do so without any regrets, knowing that he already helped how he could. The world will be on its way to recovery and he’ll allow himself to retire peacefully.

Maybe he’ll even get to be a cop again! 

The image in his head of working with Judy again will surely serve as his motivation for the coming years. That will be his prize when he comes back. Nothing will stop him from claiming it.

Nick reaches over to the side, grabbing his bunny and tugging her into the hug with them. She had been standing awkwardly with her eyes locked on the ground, trying not to let herself start crying again.

The instant she feels the bodies around her, she can’t hold it in anymore.

She squeals in a way that only a bunny can. It’s loud, piercing but full of understandable emotion.

Suddenly, a loud crackling sound fills the air as a microphone is plugged in.

Every set of eyes, both living and dead, turns towards where Gazelle is sitting with her guitar held on her lap.

Marian turns the wrong way but Nick spins her around without even having to look at her.

The thousand survivors and the undead helpers watch as a weasel bolts around the singer's legs, connecting wires and making sure everything is set up correctly. He’s only done a few sound jobs in his time, but setting up a few speakers in the grass is well within his abilities.

Gazelle watches him, strumming her guitar every few seconds to see if he’s done yet. After a few more adjustments, the sound of her acoustic guitar spreads over the hillside and bathes everyone with a feeling they’ve been missing since the pandemic started.

Awe.

“Hello everyone! Thank you for joining us outside today! As you know or may not know, we will be setting out for a new home for all of you very shortly. But we didn’t want you going away without at least a little bit of a break from the madness this world has been offering you. We understand that you have all been through so, so much. We’ve lost friends, family, lives, and plenty of other things that will never be able to be replaced. But the one thing we have not lost is our hope! And hope is what will deliver us safely to Meadowbrooke! Hope is what will bring our world back together! Hope is what will keep life from dying out once our bodies expire! And with this hope...we hope that you will allow me to sing to you, as a farewell. I will not be able to go with you when you leave. One you depart from my home, you will be under the care of Skye and her team. And they will bring you to the next stage in your lives! Though I cannot join you, I hope I will never leave your hearts. So please...sit down, and listen to what I have to say to you…” she finishes her speech already on the verge of tears.

All the mammals she’s been watching over for the past month are staring up at her like she’s the same star she used to be. She doesn’t feel like a corpse. She doesn’t feel like a shadow of herself anymore.

She feels like Gazelle, the inspiration of many.

A loud cheer consumes the crowd, followed by a thunderous applause. The singer cannot hold the few tears back, and they leak so warmly down her cheeks, making her feel almost alive again.

This is what she was born to do.

So she does it.

As she sings her first few words and strums her first few chords, the sound of an adult male polar bear being knocked out by a flying bat is covered by the roar of the crowd.


	43. Leaving the Tree

“I cannot tell you how proud I am of you, Officer Wilde. I know this is not the situation you wanted to be in, but you still uphold your promise to do what you can to protect the lives of those around you,” Gazelle tells him cheerfully. Nick finds himself in a weird place, with the tall mammal squatting down to hug him. He doesn’t mind the hug, but having Duke staring at him from on a breath away is slightly awkward.

Why does he always have to be sitting up there?

Nick doesn’t really mind it or anything, but maybe getting off of her just long enough for her to say her goodbyes in private would be a bit more courteous.

Getting stared at during an almost tearful goodbye isn’t the best way to part ways.

“Yeah…” is all Nick can say back to her. Between his apprehension and his embarrassment at being reduced to near-tears, he can’t think of much to tell her. She saved his life multiple times and he can’t even bring himself to thank her. How much of a jerk is he?

She just gives him a knowing smile and pats his shoulder. Duke leans out and pats Nick’s head for some reason, which is both a bit sweet and a bit weird.

After their long record of chasing down the weasel for his supposed crimes, the fox would have never thought that the two would end up on friendly terms. He admits that Duke is so much more than Nick thought he was. Once the weasel was given a purpose and someone to believe in him, he flourished into a helpful, trustworthy member of society. And not only that, he managed to find something that many mammals will never get a taste of:

Pure contentment with his role in life.

And who would have thought that Gazelle would take such a shine to him? It’s weird to think that a superstar like her would be able to see through the weasel’s rough exterior. But maybe it’s actually not that surprising, given how much Gazelle always preached about showing compassion.

They fit together in a sort of loving but not really romantic way that warms Nick’s heart. They’re probably the closest two mammals can be without being together.

Gazelle lets go of him and stands back up to her full height. Looking around, Nick sees that he’s one of the last mammals to board a bus. Most of the survivors were eager to get going after Gazelle finished her songs. Standing out in the open making so much noise, they know that they probably drew way too much attention to the mansion.

It was just a matter of time before millions of undead mammals came charging through the gates to devour them to pieces.

It was a mad dash to the busses to find a seat at first. It’s a good thing the busses are mostly all meant for long trips and have their own bathrooms. Otherwise transporting everyone in one trip would be downright impossible. The only bus that might present a problem is the school bus, which Nick is about to walk into.

It’s full of the few brave enough to volunteer for the more risky ride, mostly larger mammals who have been successfully defending themselves since the infection hit.

He steps away from Gazelle for what might be the last time he’ll ever speak to her. He doesn’t know her that well, but she’s still played an important role in his life so far. She is undeniably special to him.

Nick moves back to his family one last time to say his last goodbyes. They’re all looking at him like they might never see him again, and it damn near changes his mind about leaving. He wants to prove their fears wrong and keep his promise to them, even if it takes a few years to make it back.

He steps up to Finnick and his family first. Nick leans down and opens his arms out for a hug. Finnick gives him a defiant glare for a few seconds, but shortly after gives up and throws his small arms around the only sibling he’s ever had. Through thick and thin, these two have made it out together and ended up better mammals at the end. Though they might be splitting up now, they both know that this isn’t truly goodbye. Neither of them would let that happen.

Nick offers Bianca a hug too, and she greedily accepts it. He’s only known her for a few weeks now, but she’s undoubtedly become an important part of his family. She means so much to Finn, and now she’s also a mother to Barry. Whatever life she may have lived if the infection never happened doesn’t matter. She’s right where she wants to be now and Nick wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Take care of yourself, Nick. Finny would be devastated if anything were to happen to you, even if he tries to deny it,” she whispers to the fox in front of her. Finn’s ear twitches and he’s quick to spin around and object.

“No, I-!” he starts, but a look from his mate shuts him up. He deflates and looks back down to the ground, either unable or unwilling to argue back. He can’t reject the claim that he will miss his brother. He would be lying to everyone, including himself.

Barry walks up next with Selena still riding on his head. Nick smiles widely at how well the two sync up with each other, their sibling bond just as strong as his and Finnick’s. And they’ve only known each other for a month!

They’ll get even closer as time goes on.

There’s not a doubt in Nick’s mind about that.

Boy, Selena might be even more of a little rebel by the time he comes back. Barry’s going to have his paws full in the coming years!

...Will he age with her? Zombies are supposed to be dead, so he would have thought that aging was off the table. But then the cub regrew part of his brain and blew all expectations out of the water. Anything is technically possible now.

Barry leans in and gives Nick a hug, being very careful not to squeeze him too hard. The cub is almost as tall as the fox and is much, much stronger. From her place on her brother’s head, Selena wraps herself around Nick’s face and smothers him.

“Thank you, Nick! I’m sorry I was a brat when you first met me. I’m working on it,” she promises, with a slightly bashful look on her face. Nick offers the kit a proud grin and playfully messes with her ears. She bats his paw away with a fierce pout but can’t help the smirk from reaching her face. Nick was there for her when she needed him, even though she treated him like a crook at first. The fact that he’s together with her hero only makes her like him a tiny bit more.

Well, second hero. Her first hero is Barry.

Of course.

“You take good care of the Hopps family, Squirt. They’re all a bit skittish and they need someone to tell them what the world is actually like so they stop freaking out so much,” Nick laughs. He then turns his attention to the cub.

“And Barry, you keep my brother safe, okay? I know he’s a force to be reckoned with, but between you and me, I think he’s starting to pick a few too many fights that he might not be able to win,” the fox whispers.

Finnick glares at his brother but doesn’t say anything. He just folds his arms to his chest and gives Nick a warning growl.

“Okay, Nick. Thanks for the help! Good luck in Meadowbrooke, by the way. I heard they were mostly prey species before the infection. Might still not trust predators as much as they should,” he tells the russet tod. Nick chews his lip as he processes this.

It’s some useful information that only serves to make Nick want to stay more.

But again, that would be the selfish way out.

If they’re going to give him a hard time, then he’ll just have to put up with them until he’s done his duty and served the community. Then he can get the cuss out of dodge.

Barry sidesteps and rejoins his adoptive parents, with Selena hanging off of his head like it’s some kind of game for her. He stomps around and she tries to hold on for dear life, while laughing the whole time.

At least her laugh is a lot less deafening than her squeal.

Next to walk up to him is another face he’s really not wanting to have to say goodbye to. His mother and her mate. Corduroy looks bummed out and his mother looks to be on the verge of tears again. Even though they didn’t get to see each other all that much, they still both knew that they were in driving distance of each other almost all of the time, so if something happened, they could help.

But with Nick going days away, if she hears about him being in danger, it will already be too late to do anything about it. The thought of him being off by himself is terrifying, even though she knows he’s been a fully grown fox for years now. He might have switched branches and made his own nest when he was younger, but he never left the tree.

Now he’s going to build a new nest far away from the tree where they’re always lived.

Marian sniffles and walks forward into her son’s arms, bumping her head softly against his. She doesn’t squeeze him like she did last time, which allows Corduroy the opportunity to lean in and press his cheek to Nick’s chest.

The two don’t say anything to each other for a good few minutes, just letting the contact speak for them. He knows how much she’ll miss him and she knows that he’ll miss her just as much.

“Corduroy,” Nick says suddenly. The head looks up. “You take good care of my mother, okay? She’s one of the greatest mammals this world has ever seen and I wouldn’t want her getting too lonely while I’m away,” Nick requests softly.

Corduroy beams up at his stepson and offers him a determined expression.

“You got it, Sport. I won’t leave her for anything!” he declares.

“Okay, but don’t call me Sport, alright? We’re the same age. It feels weird,” Nick asks with a tiny chuckle, ignoring the look of horror on the decapitated fox’s face.

“YOU KNEW?!”

Nick and Marian chuckle, while the rest don’t know what to think of their exchange. It’s not really any of their business, so they try to act natural. But as Nick’s mother steps to the side and joins the rest of the mammals who have already seen the fox off, only one remains.

Every set of eyes turn to Judy, who is standing patiently by herself, her ears low and her eyes turn to the dirt under her feet. She looks so lost that the others start to think she won’t step forward to say her goodbyes.

Nick does it for her.

Before she can react, he scoops her up and spins her around in circles, his eyes locked with hers the whole time. She squeaks loudly and tries to keep herself from getting dizzy, but it’s a futile effort. Nick doesn’t set her down until she’s good and discombobulated.

He produces a shirt out of nowhere and tosses it over her head. Finnick is the only one who recognizes it as the same tropical green shirt he loved wearing during their hustles together. He hasn’t seen Nick wearing it in ages, though. He assumed it had been ripped or something.

Where has he been keeping that?

Nick’s intentions are a mystery for everyone watching.

Except for Selena and Barry, who give the fox a knowing smirk.

The others reel back in shock as Nick plants his lips onto the shirt, right where Judy’s lips rest on the other side. The bunny freezes solid, the only sign that she’s still animated being her tail flicking back and forth at the speed of light.

Her tail sounds like a machine gun. And it smells like it’s burning.

There goes her foot.

And her other foot.

“NICK!” she bellows in horror as she yanks the shirt off of her head and glares up at him.

“YOU COULD GET SICK!” she screams louder, drawing Gazelle’s attention. Nick just smirks down at her and pushes the same shirt against her chest.

“I’ll be fine, Carrots. I have it on good authority that a shirt is enough to protect me from your bunny cooties,” Nick assures her with a wink up to the youngsters grinning at him. Barry and Selena both wink back without the other adults catching on.

“Wait...y-you...we...we kissed!” she squeaks up at him, her mood shifting from anxious to overexcited. Nick laughs as she flies up into his arms for a big hug, this time wrapping his own paws around the bunny and snuggling her to death.

“Kinda, but I want a better one,” the fox says slyly and gives his bunny a look of hunger. She glances up and shivers at the predatory expression written on his face.

“B-but...you’ll die…” she mumbles, her whole body trembling.

“When I get back, I’m expecting a proper kiss. No shirt!” he says as he sets her down for the last time. Judy looks down at the shirt in her paws and lifts it to her face to sniff it. It becomes clear that he’s been using it as a pillow or something for awhile.

It smells very strongly of him.

Judy smiles and buries her face in the shirt, allowing his scent to cling to her fur. Nick bumps his head against his bunny before stepping back from her. There’s so much more he wants to do and say to his partner, but he knows they need to get going. Some of the other busses have already departed, about ten minutes apart from each other.

He doesn’t want to keep them waiting.

They’re part of the last bus, which is supposed to be the one trailing a short distance behind the rest and making sure nothing happens to the busses ahead of it. If the worst comes to pass, they might find themselves fighting for their lives. And if Nick’s bus is late arriving, then the bus ahead of it might not get any help.

Judy realizes that he’s moving towards the bus and almost runs forward to pull him back. She feels a paw slide into her own. Looking down, the bunny sees that Finnick is holding her paw and slowly shaking his head. But the look in his eyes tells her that he knows what she wants to do and why she can’t do it.

Bianca sinks to her knees next to her mate and locks paws with Finn. Barry and Selena join the chain, followed by Marian once Corduroy tells her where to go.

In a surprise gesture, Gazelle sits down and forms the end of the chain, with Duke sitting comfortably on top of her head.

Judy looks up and sees the weasel watching Nick walk away.

“Hey, wait, aren’t you going too?” she asks in confusion. Duke offers her a small smile and pats the head of the superstar he’s riding around.

“Nah, I’ve got a place here for now. Gazelle needs me to kick her butt into gear with her singing. Isn’t that right, Gaz?” he teases. The singer just huffs and starts battering him around with both of her ears while he laughs and tries to escape her fury.

Judy gives him a strange look.

Didn’t the weasel say he wanted a family someday? He won’t really get if he stays here with an undead mammal of a much different species.

But maybe his dream just changed once he started learning more about himself. His previous desire seemed more like a fantasy that he felt he should have if he wants to be a respected member of society.

What if he found a different way to reach that dream?

Either way, he looks content with where he is now. In just a short amount of time, he’s completely changed as a mammal. He started off as a street dwelling scrounger with no trust for anyone but himself.

But looking at him now, Judy is shocked as just how much more fit and happy he looks. Finding Gazelle was probably the best thing to ever happen to him.

And even for Gazelle, having a friend to push her to be the best version of herself without losing track of who she is might just be what she needed.

What an odd pair.

They’re like two halves of a whole. Reuniting after years of being apart.

Judy sees that Nick is stepping onto the bus now, trying his hardest not to turn around and see what kind of look she’s giving him. It’s too painful for both of them. They both want the last look they remember each other for to be the wide smiles shared after the partial kiss.

The bunny almost squeals at the thought that he wants a real kiss as soon as he gets back. By that time, he’ll have served his duty, so she won’t have any reservations about sealing the deal and allowing him to turn.

If they haven’t figured out a cure or vaccine by then, of course. With how fast the science team, aided by Gwen, has been making new discoveries, Judy can’t help but feel that a solution may come out much sooner than she thinks.

With Barry showing all kinds of new biological tricks, there’s no telling what they’ll be able to find in the coming years.

Judy finds herself surrounded by her closest family members, all of them watching as her fox takes his last few steps up the stairs of the school bus and disappears.

She wants to chase him and convince him to forget about everything. He can just stay and turn really quick and they can just be happy now instead of later.

But she doesn’t.

She lets him leave.

The bus door closes and seals her fox away from her. Why does the door have to close? Can’t they just keep it open for her?

The bus starts moving, with her fox locked away inside of it. She has to help him! He’s trapped and needs her help! The wolves are back and they’re going to kill him! Is Bellwether behind this? They’re taking him away from her!

She’s crying.

She doesn’t want to, but that doesn’t stop the flow of warm, salty tears from staining her cheeks. She feels multiple other bodies pressing to her and embracing her trembling form.

The affection is greatly needed and she melts into the group hug greedily. Selena even manages to hug her ear from the top of Barry’s head, drawing a choked chuckle from the distraught bunny.

The bus leaves the property and proceeds down the road, following the same route as all the busses before it. Judy watches the yellow mate-stealer until it vanishes from sight.

He’s gone.

Nicks gone.

Maybe forever.

And there’s nothing she can do about it. She might not see or hear from him ever again and she’s completely powerless in the m-

Her phone buzzes loudly.

The others peek over at her as she slips the large device from her pocket to answer it.

Huh.

It’s...a MuzzleTime request.

She slides the button over to accept it, her eyes glued to the phone. Everyone else watches eagerly and the phone processes her answer and loads the call.

Nick’s grinning face pops up on her phone.

Judy’s jaw falls open.

“Hey, Carrots! You-uh...you crying already? You know we can still call each other all the time, right? It's not like you won’t hear from me ever again. Is that what you were thinking?” Nick asks suspiciously, though the look on his face is filled with concern for his bunny.

“N-no!” Judy tries to deny. Nick knows her too well to fall for such an obvious lie.

“Mom, can you bop her in the head for me?” Nick chuckles.

“Okay!” Marian agrees a bit too hastily.

“No, honey, that’s not-!”

Finnick is sent flying into the dirt as his adoptive mother shoves him harshly to the ground, her ‘bop’ having been much more like a ‘slug.’ Everyone looks over to the blind fox, but she just smiles innocently around at them.

“There you go, Nicky!”

“...You know what, I’ll take it. Just...keep an eye on her, okay? Don’t want her slapping Selena or something,” Nick groans with his fingers rubbing the corners of his eyes.

Bianca and Judy give the fox a nod.

Nick chews the inside of his cheek as he looks down at the screen in very deep thought.

“...What?” Judy inquires.

“I was just thinking...why didn’t we do this when you had me trapped in my apartment?” he contemplates.

Judy’s eyes lose their luster.

Everyone around them goes quiet.

The bunny slaps herself in the face and drags her paw down slowly.

“Ooooooh myyyyyy gaaaaaaawd…” she groans.

“Yeah…” Nick agrees.

[ ](https://i.imgur.com/9JHmQch.jpg)

Thank you RoseAnon for the adorable pictures!


	44. The Road Ahead

The world is such a different place now.

Yet it’s so achingly familiar.

This is only the second time that Nick’s left the city, and he feels just as out of place as he did when he entered Bunnyburrow. The land outside of Zootopia is much greener and more natural than the designed architecture of the city.

For the first hour in the bus, Nick gets to watch vast fields of grass passing by, with some scattered farmlands checkering the landscape. What other agricultural areas are there besides the Triburrows?

They’re going in the opposite direction that he went when Judy was taking him to her home. Everything he sees is brand new to him, and he can’t help being enraptured by the scenery. The same feeling of peace and longing flows through him, his tired mind yearning for a simple life with no skyscrapers, high speed chases or near death experiences.

All the green must be getting to him. Would he be able to stay a cop if he moved out here with Judy someday? They could live the relatively comfortable life of small-town officers. What a life that would be…

He’d already given up hustling. He probably wouldn’t have to give up being a cop if he knew who to ask. What would be stopping him?

Judy is in love with the city and what it’s supposed to represent, but a lot of that came from her forming an ideal version of it in her head and idolizing it. Over the past few years, after having seen that the city is only as good as the mammals in it, she’s seen the city in a less perfect light. She doesn’t dislike living there by any means, but she’s admitted to Nick in private about preferring some of the aspects of her life in Bunnyburrow.

Nick knows exactly where she’s coming from.

But would that be enough to convince her to move?

He’ll have plenty of time to think about it. If he wanted to at some point, he could just call her and discuss it.

Nick has to keep reminding himself that he’s going to be able to talk to her as much as he wants, probably. She’s not going to disappear out of his life.

The image of his mother slugging Finn brings a tiny chuckle to the fox. He didn’t expect her to do that, but it was a pleasantly humorous moment to remember them by for the coming ordeal.

He gets a few stares from the animals around him, being the only one who isn’t dead silent and trembling nervously. A movement from the aisle catches Nick’s attention just as someone plops themself down in the seat next to him.

His eyes meet the blue orbs that he knows from her little breakdown back at the mansion bathroom.

“Oh, hey Skye,” Nick says with a hint of surprise in his voice. “Didn’t even know you were on this bus.”

“What good would I do if I got to Meadowbrooke first without the rest of my team? No, I’m better at the back of the pack so I can support the busses ahead of us if they run into trouble,” she explains to him.

“Okay, guess that makes sense…” Nick mumbles. He still doesn’t know why she shifted seats to be near him, though. She just looks ahead as the bus moves steadily along the passing countryside.

They’re at the very back of the bus. There’s no way she can see any possible danger coming from the front if she’s all the way back here, so she must have sat next to him for a specific reason. He looks at her questioningly until she notices the eyes on her. She gives him a few glances but doesn’t say anything to give him any sort of answer.

Nick just huffs and turns back to the window, refusing to start a conversation with her if she doesn’t know what she wants. She still almost killed his brother’s cub, anyway. He might have comforted her for a little while, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgiven her. If she doesn’t feel like talking, she can just sit there with her tail shoved up her-

“Did you leave the bunny?” Skye asks suddenly, breaking Nick out of his musings. He turns his head to her with an exasperated look on his face, not sure if he heard her correctly.

“Excuse me?”

“The bunny you said you were with. Did you leave her? I saw her crying a lot and you didn’t stay back at the house. What did you do?” she persists. She must not have that much experience talking about personal matters like this. The hints Nick gives her to let her know that she’s treading on some thin ice go ignored.

“...No, I didn’t break up with her. I promised her I would come back when I’m done,” he says bitterly. Skye isn’t really close enough to him to be asking these kinds of questions.

“And you mean to keep your promise?”

“Of course I do! Why do you even care?!” Nick spits. By now, most of the ears in the bus are turned in his direction. They don’t look but they are sure as cuss listening.

Skye flinches back a bit, finally noticing that she may have crossed a line by even asking him.

“I...I just wanted to know why you didn’t stay. I would have stayed. And you know what they’re going to be having you do, right? Your bunny is okay with you having kits with random vixens?”

Nick huffs again and keeps his glare facing out at the sinking sun. A deep purple cuts through the remaining orange in the sky. It really is a beautiful sunset, even if he can’t relax enough to let himself enjoy it right now.

It will be dark soon.

The hardest parts are still yet to come.

“She knows that I’m going to be a father. I won’t be laying with any vixens though. Promised her I would keep it artificial. She’s the only one I want to be with that way anyway,” he grumbles unhappily. Skye really needs to just drop it and leave him alone.

“...Nick, I don’t know if that will be an option. Meadowbrooke is pressed for supplies as it is, I doubt they want to use up a bunch of equipment for something that can easily be done in manual,” she explains, her voice much softer and less robotic. She’s starting to understand why he might have reacted defensively to her at first. She knows she isn’t the best at talking about intimate matters such as these.

“Then I’ll pack up my things and leave. I will not sleep around behind Judy’s back. I didn’t even want to come here in the first place, but my sense of compassion wouldn’t let me leave the word to burn. I want to help, but it has to happen my way or not at all,” he states with a shrug.

“You know, the vixens aren’t going to like it anymore than you do. They have it even worse, since they have to actually give birth. Don’t act like you’re the only one making sacrifices, Nick. You’re just one among many now, so please don’t expect special treatment.”

Nick doesn’t have a response to this.

He knows that she’s right. There are tons of mammals going through very similar situations, and he wouldn’t expect Meadowbrooke to put in the extra effort for every single mammal who happens to want something special.

“...Are you going to be one of them?” Nick asks her suddenly. She gives him a confused look and tilts her head.

“One of who?”

“The ones I’m going to have...you know…” he stutters, remembering that they’re both on a bus full of ears, and every set is focused on the two foxes intently.

Skye realizes what he is talking about and swiftly turns her attention back to the front of the bus, as if he didn’t say anything at all.

Her ear flicks a few times.

“...Maybe at some point...we are not told who we are to be with. Or if we are to be with anyone at all. The chances are slim, though. I think. You’ll probably be given a list of other red foxes in Meadowbrooke to see. Also heard that they’ll be sending out vials for the settlements with few of certain species,” she says to him. Even the bus driver is listening now, and he’s part of her team. Did she not tell anyone else about any of this yet? Seems a bit shortsighted.

“Wait, so they’re sending samples to other parts of the world? But if they can do that just fine, why can’t they do it for the ones in the camp? It’s the same thing I wanted to do!” Nick argues.

“Yes, but again, our supplies are limited. We cannot waste the vials if they are not needed. There’s only so many to go around, and if you use them up, what will happen to some of the other species that haven’t yet sent their genetics out?”

Nick presses his head to the window, not liking how deep she’s digging into him right now. If they have such a shortage of supplies, then maybe he should just go back. Seems like they’re already overcrowded. What’s one less fox to a country? 

Skye waits for him to respond but he doesn’t. She swallows loudly and sits in awkward silence for way too long.

“...Sorry,” she mumbles suddenly.

“For what?”

“...Giving the order to shoot the cub. Had I known that he was just as innocent as any young one, I never would have allowed him to be shot. I am horrified that I not only almost killed him, but also very nearly ended the life of an innocent kit.”

Nick chews on his cheek as he listens to her, not knowing if he’s ready to accept her apology just yet.

“...Why him? Why made you shoot at him? Why not the others? I was wondering…” Nick asks.

“Well, he wasn’t the first one we attempted to take out. We fired at the fennec first, but he ducked. As for the others, well...we couldn’t tell they were dead. Our thermals must have been messing up or something. The bunnies and the arctic fox all showed up on thermal as being at least fairly warm. The kit was the warmest but the other two weren’t that much colder,” she explains, realizing how strange the situation sounds for the first time. Maybe it just took hearing it out loud to get her attention. 

Nick turns back to her and blinks slowly.

Judy and Bianca...were nearly the same temperature as Selena?

That can’t be right...there’s no way!

How could they be warm? They’re dead! They’re corpses! But...Nick has been noticing some changes in Judy as time goes on.

Like her ears.

They were ripped when she first turned, but now they’ve barely got a scratch on them. He thought that Duke might have patched them up like he did with Finnick’s ears, but there’s hardly a scar there anymore.

Plus, the recovery started before Duke even arrived.

And...her warm cheeks. She could blush! She had actual body heat! The more that Nick thinks about it, the more the thermal story makes sense. She’s been warmer than a corpse should be for awhile now, and would probably trick a thermal optic into thinking she’s alive.

Is she...recovering from the infection?

But...that would mean…

Nick gulps dryly and tries to look back out of the window, his eyes falling upon the setting sun as it slowly lowers itself behind the horizon. His mind buzzes with activity, trying to settle on any one thought to focus on but failing.

Judy might be coming back to life.

What does this mean for him?

How is this even possible?

Nick tries to keep his hopes from rising, but the spark of anticipation is already there. He wants to know more about what is going on with that little bunny body of hers.

“It’s...it’s okay. Apology accepted…” Nick mumbles, though his mind is still far away. Skye’s mood seems to flick back to being happy like a switch was flipped somewhere in her head.

“Thank you! And don’t worry about the repopulation effort, we’ll all just do what we can for now. No use fussing over the unknown,” the vixen tells him pleasantly.

“Yeah,” Nick agrees mindlessly. He barely even heard what she said. The vixen’s voice echoes in his head, telling him of Judy’s supposed revival over and over.

He hasn’t seen her without her top on for obvious reasons. He doesn’t know if the wounds from her original turning are still there. Could she have healed those up as well?

It’s so typical that he’s learning all of this now, only an hour into his trip away from Judy. If only Skye told him earlier…

Apparently she isn’t quite finished.

“But if we are paired together at some point in the future, and I must bear your kits...I will try my best to find a way to do it without you breaking your promise to your bunny,” she swears, looking him directly in the eyes.

The tension in Nick’s body leaks back out.

“Thank you…” he says with a small but genuine smile.

“I get why you don’t want anyone but her. I’m also happily taken, even if he can’t be with me anymore. And I don’t plan on letting any random fox they assign me to touch me when Jack isn’t around to kick their ass,” she claims with a tiny growl at the back of her throat.

Nick’s smile widens at her antics.

The rest of the mammals on the bus start to get the hint that they won’t be hearing any more spicy details surrounding the two foxes and begin to chatter lightly. The background noise of the bus entering the highway and speeding up puts most of the occupants a bit more at ease.

The fox glances at the passing landscape and it shifts and changes from open fields of green to more densely forested areas. Nick always knew that there were plenty of forests surrounding Zootopia, but he never quite comprehended how big everything is compared to the city.

The city might be large, but it’s nothing compared to the world around it. It’s really just a specialized environmental zone located in the middle of a great big green section of the planet. There are mostly farmlands in the immediate area, but beyond that, the trees reign supreme.

This is where a lot of the arboreal species live. Squirrels, chipmunks, and the like. Once the green starts getting intersected by rivers, that’s when the river countries start appearing.

Beavers call these areas home and have for countless generations.

At least, that’s what Nick’s heard through the grapevine. The few beavers he’s had the pleasure of hustling out of their money have mentioned bits and pieces of what their home country was like.

Meadowbrooke is one of the more diverse nations, located right where one of the largest rivers in the continent bifurcates into many smaller distributaries. Surrounding the area are countless ancient trees which extend up to the sky, almost higher than any building in Zootopia. This creates a situation where the tree-dwelling species live right next door to the semi-aquatic mammals.

Wasn’t Otterton from Meadowbrooke? He’ll have to ask if he ever talks to him again.

Nick has seen pictures of the cities built in the trees but never could quite wrap his head around how so many buildings could stay in the trees without falling out or weighing the tree down.

He’s excited to see it.

But at the same time, he’s more tempted than ever to call it quits and go back to Judy.

If she’s coming back to life, why would he leave? Well...her being alive wouldn’t bring any more living kits into the world. His species would remain the same level of endangered. So, in the end, he would be refusing the same amount of help…

The fox sighs and tries to just lose himself in the world around him. The mammals inside the bus seem to be doing the same, except for the occasional ducking down they do when a passing car or truck enters their vision.

They don’t want to be spotted and recognized as being alive. Nick chuckles whenever he sees them doing this. They know that the windows are tinted and the undead can’t smell them through two vehicles worth of metal and glass, right? Ah, whatever. As long as they don’t make it too obvious that they are alive, everything should be fine.

The sun is almost gone now, turning the sky an even more brilliant shade of orange.

The vixen next to him lets out a wide yawn and rubs at her eyes. Nick notices for the first time that she looks absolutely exhausted. Did she even sleep since she arrived at the mansion?

She can barely keep her eyes open now that she’s not focused on a conversation. The steady sound of the highway, mixed with the constant tiny bumps of the bus under her, are quickly rocking her to sleep. At this rate, she won’t be awake for more than a few minutes.

She sleepily turns towards Nick and yawns at him. He tilts his head questioningly in return.

“I need...yawn...some sleep. Can you keep an eye on the roads while I’m out? Just make sure that nobody is following us or anything,” she requests weakly. Nick gives her a slow nod after a few moments and she almost immediately leans back into her seat and closes her eyes.

“Don’t...leave your bunny…” she mumbles, already half asleep.

“I won’t,” Nick assures her. With that, she passes out completely and is dead to the world. How was she even staying awake if she was that tired? It’s like someone just switched her off.

Nick scans the headlights of the cars moving near the bus, making a mental note of their shapes and speeds. As long as he doesn’t keep seeing the same shape keeping up with them without passing for a long time, he should be good.

With that in mind, the fox opens his phone back up and starts scrolling through his earlier texts with Judy. A feeling of warmth and longing spreads through him as he rereads their conversation. It was just about her going back to work, but it carries with it such a bittersweet sensation. He wants that familiarity back. He wants to be able to talk about these things like they’re the most important thing going on in their lives again.

No more fear.

No more huge life-changing decisions.

Just him and his bunny, discussing how their days went. Maybe a pizza to share between them as they watch one of her animated movies.

Nick has to force himself not to choke on his emotions again. He can’t be getting homesick already, it’s only been a few hours! He has to be stronger than this if he’s going to make a difference in the world.

Ha, listen to him.

Talking like Judy.

...He allows one tear to fall, but just the one.

His single cry is disturbed by Skye’s sleeping form as she falls over and leans into him. The sudden contact is surprising, but he calms down when he sees that she’s still just asleep. The bus must have turned enough to tilt her to the side.

Nick carefully pushes her back into a sitting position, making sure not to poke or prod her enough to wake her up. She stirs slightly, but thankfully stays asleep.

He returns to his phone, only for the vixen to slump against him again, this time snoring directly in his face. Her breath smells like she hasn’t brushed in a good while, forcing Nick to turn his head to the side to avoid her stink.

Again, he pushes her into her own seat.

He stares at her this time to make sure she’s not just awake and messing with him. But he is proven wrong when the bus moves around a sharper corner and sends her sliding down towards him once more.

He pushes her back just as his phone starts buzzing. The fox excitedly accepts the MuzzleTime request, ecstatic to see the smiling face of his bunny looking back at him. She’s all spiffy-looking in her clean uniform, appearing just as pretty as the day she handed him his own badge.

He smiles wide down at the phone as it casts its light over his face. The sun had already set, making the phone the only source of light except for the passing lights on the highway.

“Hey Carrots!” Nick greets eagerly, his tail trying to wag behind him in the seat. Just as Judy opens her mouth to return his greeting, the bus hits another turn and sends Skye sliding against his shoulder, her head rolling into the phone’s view.

Judy’s mouth closes and she goes quiet.

Nick grunts at the sudden extra weight and forces the vixen off of him yet again.

“Nick…” Judy says, her tone dark and cautious. “Why is the leader of the Reformation Society leaning against you?”

“She’s sleeping and won’t! Stop! Sliding! Onto me!” With every word, he has to force her off of him again and again. What, is this bus going in circles?! Why is she always getting pushed towards him and not the other direction?!

Judy’s glare disappears slowly as she watches the interaction between the two very different foxes. For a brief moment, she forgot that it was Nick on the other end.

Of course it would be something innocent. Nick is Nick!

He’s the one that gave up his old life just to be close to her!

The sly fox always denies it, but Judy knows him better than that. Nick turned over so many new leaves that he might as well have changed his name. The fox she watched go through the police academy is leagues different than the one that hustled her out of fifteen bucks.

Nick would never do something like cheat on her.

Especially with the vixen who very nearly killed his family.

Finally, the bus turns in the other direction and Skye is launched from her seat and onto the seat across the aisle, slamming into a confused-looking dingo. He looks down at the sleeping vixen and gets a bashful look on his face.

He doesn’t push her off and just lets her sleep, a dopey grin spreading across his muzzle.

She snores at him and gives him a face full of unwashed fox breath.

His grin disappears but he doesn’t push her away.

How brave.

Nick shakes himself off from the onslaught of sleeping vixen and returns his attention down to his bunny. She’s giving him an amused smirk that carries with it an air of relief.

“Ugh. So, anyway, what’s up?” Nick asks.

“Oh, nothing. Just wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”

The bus continues onward towards its destination, just another vehicle among the hundreds on the road tonight. Countless undead mammals ride along the highway, none the wiser to the long metal tubes full of fresh meat that are slipping out from right under their noses.

But on this highway, it’s not the undead they have to be wary of.

A pair of headlights follow steadily behind them.


	45. To Be a Hopps

Barry is glad he managed to get some sleep the night before. Even being undead, going through being turned and then having his brain shot out definitely left him feeling exhausted.

Which is strange, considering how lively and energetic most other zombies are. They don’t need to sleep or rest, as far as he knows. They’re full cylinders, all the time.

But not Barry. Besides the residual numbness and the massive boost in his strength, he actually feels mostly the same now. His brain has stopped itching already and the flashes of recurring memories have thankfully left him. There’s barely even a noticeable scar where the bullet went through anymore.

He wishes he had some of the stamina that everyone else has.

Because these bunnies haven’t left him alone since he got here.

They currently have him hiding up in one of the few trees scattered around the Hopps family farm. They don’t seem to be able to climb after him, so they circle the tree like hungry predators waiting for him to risk coming back down.

The moment he stepped through the giant wooden gate serving as the entrance to the walled-off property, Barry knew he was in trouble. One passing bunny kit looked over and saw his big, fuzzy body and gasped out loud.

Barry thought he had frightened her.

She took off to the entrance of the burrow, but didn’t actually run inside. Instead, she planted herself in the dirt right outside the door and made a few loud squeaky noises that might have been her voice. Then her one foot started thumping at the ground in what he believed to be a sort of bunny Morse code.

That was when he should have started running.

But being curious and all, he kept watching to see what might possibly happen.

And then…

Bunnies.

Hundreds of them, if not more.

How are they a liquid?!

They gushed out of the burrow’s entrance as if the door was a dam that had just given out.

White, black, grey, all the colors he knew bunnies can be...swarmed at him before he could process exactly what he was seeing.

Selena, who had taken a few more steps towards the entrance to get a glimpse of her future siblings, squealed and tore up the grass under her feet to get back to her brother.

Once she had climbed her way onto his back, he ran.

He ran as fast as his enhanced body would allow. If he was still alive, he wouldn’t have made it. His speed boost allowed him to escape the riptide of kits just in time to cling to a random tree and clamber his way up.

So here he sits with his sister holding on tightly to him, suddenly very unsure about the prospect of her living among so many other kits, most of them even younger than her.

Barry looks down at the swaying flood of bunnies below him. He doesn’t really have any way of getting out of this, short of using the same ability he used to regrow part of his brain to sprout some wings and fly away.

That would be silly.

But at this point, almost everything going on around him is tremendously silly.

Selena shivers, her face hidden deep in the back of her brother’s hoodie. She never told him, but is horribly afraid of heights. The last thing she expected him to do was run up a tree, but it’s too late for regrets now.

She’s already up a tree and even though she’s high above the ground, she is undoubtedly safer up here than she is down there.

Are all country kits like this? She’s only ever lived in the city so she’s used to small families and busy schedules. Why are there so many? Why are they operating like a swarm of insects? Is there a Queen to this hive mind?

Apparently.

Just as a group of the bunnies starts to gnaw at the base of the tree to bring it down, a shrill whistle sounds over the hill. Every single kit turns to look at the form of the family matriarch, with her paws in her hips and a stern look on her face.

A sea of ears go flying down to the backs of their respective heads. The gnawers stop gnawing. The thumpers stop thumping. The entire liquid body seems to go completely still just from the single whistle of their mother.

“What did I tell you all about swarming the guests? They didn’t come here to get drowned! Get away from the tree, go back in the burrow and eat the rest of your breakfast!” Bonnie demands loudly and clearly.

The bunnies march back to where they had originally burst out of, the solemn crowd seeming much more like a solid now.

As the herd trickles back into the underground residence, Finnick and Bianca are finally able to make it to the tree to see if the young ones are okay.

They could barely see their son, with how fast he ran and climbed the tree. What is worrying them now is how he’s going to get down, though. Being a city cub from Tundratown, climbing trees isn’t something he ever got to experience. This also means he never really learned how to get down.

“Barry, is Selena up there with you? Are you two okay?” Bianca calls from her place on the ground. Finnick is circling the tree and making sure that no other bunny kits are trying to find a way up.

“Yeah, we’re fine!” Barry calls back down to her. On his back, he can feel Selena trembling in panic. Her claws are digging into his back through his clothes as she holds on for dear life. Luckily, his numbness is blocking the pain he would otherwise be experiencing.

“Okay, good! Can you get down?”

“I think so! Just let me...ugh, hold on…” he grumbles, trying to maneuver himself into a position where he can start making his way back down to the ground.

Bianca watches on nervously as he does this. From this height, it wouldn’t matter if she tried to catch him. The impact alone would probably kill all three of them.

The arctic vixen lets out a squeak of horror as the cub drops a small distance, only to sink his claws into the tree to stop his fall. Instead of climbing down one limb at a time, he seems to favor this short drop method. Selena lets out a shriek every time his claws let go and they start falling again.

Eventually his paws impact the ground and he’s safe once more. At this point, Selena is wrapped around his head with her claws digging into his skin, stretching his face back comically.

His adoptive mother runs forward and hugs the both of them just as Bonnie reaches the tree. She glances up at it but doesn’t see any lasting damage.

Her first worry was, of course, the two strangers that her spawn had scared up there. But once they got down, she allowed herself to worry about one of the few trees left on the property. She thought the cub might have just slid down with his claws and left long track marks, but luckily he used a method which left minimal amounts of holes in the bark.

It’s a small concern but she’s thankful that he was considerate enough to reduce his damage.

In her book, the polar bear cub is already turning out to be quite the little gentlemammal. Even though she had accidentally let her little ones out of her control for a few minutes, he had found a way to avoid any sort of conflict.

It’s not like the kits would have attacked them or anything. Knowing her children, they were just overjoyed by the sight of someone so chunky and fluffy. He might resemble the teddies they have in their rooms.

They probably just wanted to take turns hugging him.

But Bonnie knows that having hundreds of bunnies hugging someone at once can lead to disaster, no matter how innocent the intentions.

She’s glad to see that the bunny kit with him is also unharmed, if not a bit shaken from the whole experience. The vixen has to pry her off of the bear’s head one claw at a time. Each released claw lets a tiny bit of the cub’s skin fall back into place. Soon enough, he’s free and his face skin is allowed to function under his power once more.

Finnick rejoins the group, glancing up at the bunny matron with an uncertain look in his eye. He’s not quite happy that even rabbits seem to be bigger than him. And this one is armed with a soup ladle. It doesn’t sound like much of a threat, but the fennec knows from experience that he would have a hell of a time trying to fight off someone like Bonnie if it came down to it.

Luckily for both of them, a wide smile spreads across Bonnie’s face as she takes in the sight of the makeshift family before her. They might all be different species and they might be dead, but she can tell how much they care about each other just from the way the vixen is nursing the cub and the smaller tod is sniffing around for any lingering danger.

The living kit among them definitely stands out, but the way she clings to the polar bear cub lets Bonnie know that they’re all close as can be.

“Welcome, welcome! I’m so sorry about the little ones, they get over-excited very easily and aren’t used to seeing new species very often,” she explains while giving Barry a nod of understanding. He shivers slightly at the recent memory of how the kits flew at him like a tidal wave of death.

He won’t be forgetting that visual anytime soon, that’s for sure.

Behind them, just inside the gate, a few more cars are parked. The members of the science team, now dressed in much more casual clothing for the country, are climbing in and out of Finnick’s van to retrieve their equipment. He had the vehicle with the most storage space, but it can’t make it across the rougher terrain between the wall and the barn.

Stu is having to get the tractor set up with a pull-behind platform so they can transport their supplies to the old barn they’ve been given access to in order to continue their work. It’s not old or run-down by any means, but it’s not being used right now. The night howlers are being sent out almost as fast as they’re being harvested, leaving little need for storage space.

It’s a sturdy barn with a solid foundation. It even has a section that’s air conditioned.

Doctor Packard, now dressed in a simple blouse and a pair of thick jeans, makes her way up over the hill for the first time to join Barry’s family and the head of the Hopps Family Farm. Without Bonnie’s permission, they would be struggling to continue their research.

So, in a very direct manner, Packard owes a lot to the motherly rabbit.

Just as the undead alpaca goes to say something in appreciation, she gets her first view of the expansive fields of purple flowers being grown. They seem to stretch on forever, or at least to the horizon. Nothing but lines and rows of endless potential.

In her eyes, she might as well be staring at every answer they’ve been striving to find. With this much material to work with, they’ll be able to run so many more tests without worrying about how much they’re going through.

They will be able to start making more of the serums that they already know eliminate the feral urges in mammals and might even cause them to heal at amazing rates.

She can do so much good here.

And she has this generous mother of hundreds to thank.

Packard tries to look down and speak professionally to Bonnie, but finds that her vision is suddenly blurred by the tears she didn’t realize were streaming down her face. Her words fly out as little more than messy babble, drawing a concerned look from the rabbit in front of her.

“Oh, dear, are you okay?” Bonnie asks, moving closer and placing a paw on the arm of the fluffy mammal. Packard uses her other arm to hastily wipe her face away, astounded at how warm her tears feel to the touch.

She’ll have to focus on that later...right now she’s too busy being appalled at her lack of self-control over something as simple as seeing a bunch of flowers.

But inside, she knows what those flowers all means to the world.

Not just salvation. Not just recovery.

Most of all, they represent Hope. Just as Gazelle has said in her speech, right now in the world, the most important thing they can do is keep trying. And with this infinite supply of hope, Packard knows that she’lll be able to do so much to help the mammals impacted by this horrible infection.

How odd is it, huh? Just a couple years ago, these flowers were the bane of everyone’s existence. They were almost the downfall of every predator in the city, abused for their potential by a psychotic ewe that ended up taking a dive off of a building after the turning anyway.

She still remembers how much joy she felt watching that happen live.

And how much it scared her that she was cheering over another mammal’s demise.

She never wanted to be that kind of alpaca. A doctor should be better than that. But after how many citizens she almost doomed to a life of constant oppression...it was just so nice to see her end up on the wrong end of her own plan once again.

Now, here they are. Night howlers are the saviors of the planet instead of the death of a city. Nobody is quite sure who first found out that night howlers have a calming effect on the undead when applied to the skin, but she’s eternally grateful to them.

But with what she’s going to be working on now, the effects of her medicines will be much more permanent than the night howler paintballs that she’s heard of survivor camps using against undead attackers.

Packard finally snaps out of her thoughts and gives Bonnie a quick nod.

“Oh, I’m fine, Ma’am. Thank you for...well, thank you for everything you’re doing for us. I can’t even begin to tell you how much help you’re providing us by letting us stay here to work. I’m not kidding when I say that you might be saving millions of lives. Swear on my life..er, death! Oh, you know what I mean!” the alpaca gushes over the rabbit as she regains her self-control. In response, Bonnie’s cheeks warm up and she looks around a bit timidly. She’s definitely not used to compliments of this magnitude. How is she supposed to respond to being told she’s saving millions?

It’s just not easy for her to even comprehend.

She’s perfectly content just being Bonnie Hopps, mother of many and spouse of one.

“That’s too much! I’m barely doing any of the work, hun! Us letting you stay in our barn and using some of our flowers isn’t saving anyone. It’s up to you and your team to determine what happens next. From what I hear, you’re already finding new things every day. So...if you want to repay us for the honestly very little we’re doing for you, then please...just do what you can to bring an end to all of this madness,” Bonnie says straight from the depths of her heart.

Packard stands back up to attention and gives the rabbit a look of fiery determination. It’s like she’s a whole new mammal, brought in to do a job and do it as fast and safely as she can. There are billions of animals out there counting on her and her team.

“I will not let you or anyone else down, Ma’am! I swear!” Packard declares firmly.

“Oh, stop it with that. Please, you and your team can just call me Bonnie. Or Mrs. Hopps. Just anything other than BonBon or Buns. Those are Stu’s words and he’ll rain hell down on anyone else who tries to use them on me!” Bonnie laughs lightly.

Packard just blinks down at her, not exactly sure what to make of that.

Is it bunnies just being bunnies again?

A brief glance up reveals the forms of Bucky and Gwen sneaking off to the barn together, the matron completely oblivious to what’s about to happen right under her nose.

Should she tell Bonnie?

...No, the two are adults and have earned their closeness with how much help they’ve provided just by knowing what questions to ask and to whom. Without Gwen, they never would have even thought to ask about moving their operation to the Hopps Family Farm. And apparently, according to Judy, Gwen has opened up a great deal ever since she started hanging around Bucky. She’s much less timid than she used to be, since she has someone around her who understands a lot of what is going on in her mind.

Two bunnies who excel at multiplying.

What can go wrong?

...Just as long as they’re done by the time Stu brings the equipment up to the barn for them to start setting up.

Oh, she hopes they don’t leave a mess...the last thing she wants to step in is leftover bunny biology homework.

Either way, Bonnie might find herself with a few hundred extra kits pretty soon.

Wow, she really needs to stop doing that. Her own specism is a shock to her. How did she let herself get this bias in her head? A doctor should definitely be better than this.

Packard shrugs it off and gives another thankful nod down to Bonnie before she turns to help her team unpack the remaining gear they’ll need for the night howler research. The team, both the living and dead members, work tirelessly together to get the job done. They’re all friends and don’t see each other for their living status.

Could this be what the world turns into?

The living and the dead, just coexisting together and working to heal the damage that the infection caused?

She sure hopes so.

But it will take so much work to get there. Not only will they have to come up with enough answers to assure the lives of the living will no longer be threatened, but then comes the even more daunting task of easing tensions between the living and the undead.

It’s possible. In small enough groups where conversation can happen amongst a select few individuals, peace is definitely possible. She sees it every time she opens her eyes. But will the world as a whole be willing to see past the amount of beats of every heart?

Only time will tell.

Back with Bonnie, Selena finds herself unable to say anything. The display of power over all those kits earlier has made the remaining kit nervous beyond reason.

They all listened to her without arguing back or asking questions. To her, this isn’t immediately a good sign. Are they all afraid of her? Will she beat them with that soup ladle if they dare to continue after she’s said to stop?

She knows how a mother to so many might have to resort to ruling with fear.

Is that what’s happening? Is that who is going to be her foster mother for the coming years?

“Well, hello sweetie! Are you Selena?” Bonnie asks, appearing above her quite suddenly. Selena didn’t hear the older rabbit approaching her, having been so lost in her own thoughts and worries.

She squeaks and hides herself behind Barry’s thick legs. The cub blinks in confusion and turns around to look at her. This isn’t how he imagined this going.

In his imagination, he assumed Selena might have tried to stomp in and act like she owns the place, completely unaware of how things in a larger burrow like this actually work. But here she is, acting uncharacteristically quiet and nervous around the kindly rabbit who will be watching over her from now on.

Finnick walks up behind the trembling kit and places a paw on her shoulder.

Selena glances back at the fennec, who is giving her a worried look that seems just as out of character for him as hiding does for her.

“You okay, Sal?” Finn asks softly, not making any sudden movements that might make her think that he’s forcing her to come out of hiding.

“I...I don’t know…” Selena admits. “The other kits just...listened to her! They didn’t even fight back! Not a single one! That’s not normal!” Bianca overhears the kit’s muted mumblings and squats down next to her.

“Honey, that wasn’t fear you saw. That was respect. Believe me, I know fear when I see it, and that was more along the lines of kits adoring their mother enough to listen to her without question,” Bianca explains.

“But-!” Selena tries to argue.

“They weren’t scared,” Barry says quietly, his face turned away from his sister. Selena closes her mouth and looks up at the cub, suddenly feeling much more convinced by the opposing argument. If anyone would know what to look for in a fear-relationship, it would be him. If he says she’s good, then…

Maybe…

Selena swallows nervously and steps out from behind the cub, her large amber eyes flicking between the rabbit in front of her and the ground. Bonnie just leans down a bit to talk to her face-to-face, the warm smiling never leaving her lips.

“Hi, there! I’m Bonnie Hopps, and I’m Gwen’s mother. Or, I guess you’re familiar with my older daughter Judy?” she asks coyly, already knowing the answer. Gwen already told her how much the kit idolizes the bunny cop of Zootopia.

Selena’s eyes glimmer with excitement as she remembers just who this rabbit had raised. If she was able to help morph Judy into what she is today, then there’s no way she can be anything but a great mom!

“Yeah!” the kit chirps. Barry smirks down at the exchange, knowing exactly what little mind game was played on his sister to cheer her up so fast. Bonnie looks up at him and notices the lifted brow he’s giving her.

She just winks at him and motions for him to keep quiet about it.

“I heard you were going to be staying with us for awhile?” Bonnie continues. Selena, still maintaining her look of eagerness, gives a shrug that she thinks will make her appear more cool and nonchalant.

Bonnie just smirks knowingly.

“Well, if you’re going to be a Hopps, that means you’ll have to eat like a Hopps. Breakfast is going on right now, and there’s plenty more! How about you come inside and we’ll get your stuff settled and some food in your belly?” she asks sweetly.

Tempted by the prospect of actual home cooked food, Selena follows the motherly rabbit back to the entrance of the burrow, not realizing that her brother and previous guardians aren’t following behind her. Bonnie sees that they’re lingering where they were, all of them having resigned looks of sadness on their faces.

They think that Selena is leaving now.

Just walking away without saying goodbye.

Barry looks the most downtrodden of the three, his eyes fixed firmly on the ground below his paws. Bonnie just rolls her eyes at their conditioned tendency for the dramatic and waves at them to come in.

“I meant all of you!”

One of the undead science team members who had just happened to be walking by points to himself with a questioning but hopeful look on his face.

“Yes, yes, all of you! Just make sure you don’t mix up any of the silverware you use! Actually...I’m just going to use the plastic utensils for now. Don’t want to risk anything…” she mumbles to herself as she walks back inside with a few more mammals following after her.

The last member of the science team to reach the burrow entrance hears some sort of shout coming from the barn. He almost goes to investigate, but the delicious smell of freshly baked sweet potato bread enters his nose and takes control of his mind.


	46. Highway to Hell

The morning sun is shining over the horizon by the time Skye opens her eyes. She leans up off the warm, green cushion she had been laying on and stretches her arms out wide. A few satisfying pops echo out into the bus, though they are drowned out by the hum of the engine and the noise of the highway.

She can tell right away that the mammals in the bus are much more relaxed than the day before. They chat softly amongst each other, some even turned in their seats to talk to whoever is behind them. The fear that they might be spotted by the undead is mostly gone. They watch the rest of the cars go by, their eyes fixed on the occupants in each passing vehicle. It’s a whole new world for them, especially for the ones who had spent most of the last month hiding away. Watching the undead driving around like normal must be a surreal experience for those who thought they were mindless.

These ones are surely not the ones who had been staying at Gazelle’s mansion. Skye’s survivors are much more jumpy and quick to spook. The ones who spent plenty of time around Gazelle and her helpers are much more used to being seen by the beings who could potentially chase them down and devour them.

Some of them have even stayed in contact with the undead helpers they had been protected by. Friends have been made and that’s not something distance can or fear can take away.

Skye watches as one passenger, a large lioness, chats with a very obviously undead cheetah over MuzzleTime. She recognizes the cheetah as having been one of the undead helpers that had helped move everything from the destroyed vans into the new buses. He was a lot stronger than she thought he would be. But then again, so were the tigers that fought them. Without the guns, the tigers would have wiped them out without an issue. But then again, they apparently were using non lethal methods to fight anyway…

She can’t help wonder what would have happened if they just wanted to kill them as opposed to disarm them.

Her and her team likely wouldn’t have survived. They might have dropped one tiger, but Chadwick alone could have tanked enough damage to execute them all before they could manage to line up enough headshots to break through his thick skull. They were lucky with the two tigers they managed to shoot in the eye.

The infection is a scary thing...yet it’s so fascinating what it can do to the bodies of those that catch it. It kills, but then it enhances in almost every way.

What would be possible if they figured out a way to control the virus and make it enhance the living?

She had already seen an undead cub regenerate part of his brain after the infection was tampered with. At that point, anything is on the table in terms of potential.

Skye finishes her waking routine and turns to her cushion, which she is embarrassed to discover was actually Nick’s shirt the whole time. Was she leaning against him all night?

Hopefully he doesn’t get the wrong idea. He’s a handsome fox and all, but he’s not Jack.

She’ll see Jack again one day, and until that day comes, she has eyes for no one else.

Luckily, Nick doesn’t look like he has taken her accidental closeness the wrong way. He’s not even looking at her.

Oh, wow.

He looks exhausted. Did he not get any sleep?

Was she keeping him up?

“Sorry, Nick. Really needed that, didn’t mean to sleep for so long. I didn’t keep you awake, did I?” she asks through another loud yawn.

He still doesn’t look at her.

His ears are flicking in place like he’s on high alert and his fur is bristled like there’s danger around. Skye realizes that he is paying attention to something that is disturbing him.

“What’s wrong?” she demands, suddenly wide awake. He gives her a serious look and swallows dryly. She can tell that whatever he has to say is urgent. Why didn’t he wake her earlier?

“There’s a vehicle that’s been following us. They’ve been hanging back but they pull into every gas station that we do,” he tells her with a dark tone. Her eyes widen and she spins in her seat to scan the traffic behind her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?! They could be tracking our route!” she snaps at him. Nick just looks forward at the bus driver, who is one of Skye’s crew.

“Told the other guy. He wanted to let you sleep. We’re going a different direction for now until they try to make a move.”

“Have the other busses been contacted?” she asks, trying but failing to spot any cars traveling behind them that are acting suspiciously.

“Yes. They’ve all taken separate exits and are going to loop around until they know for sure that they’re not being followed. Then they’ll go back to the original route as fast as they can. We might be arriving at much different times now,” Nick explains to her, his eyes still staring straight forward.

She turns back to him and examines his tense posture.

“...Did the other passengers hear about this?” she whispers to him. He shakes his head robotically.

“I walked to the front of the bus to talk about it with your driver. Nobody else knows we’re deviating from the path.”

She gives him an impressed glance before resuming her search for the perusing vehicle lurking somewhere in the traffic behind them.

“Not bad, Nick. Good work keeping everybody calm and arranging a Plan B. I wish you would have just woke me up, though,” she admits.

“That’s not all, though. They pulled off at a rest stop last night while we kept driving. I thought that this might have meant they weren’t actually following us, but ten minutes later, I saw the same pair of headlights speeding to catch back up to us. They slowed down when they got closer, but I could tell how much faster they were going until we were back in their sights,” Nick says with a slight tremble.

Skye feels her blood run cold.

“Why would they…?”

“I think the ones following us might be alive,” the tod finally manages to tell her. He runs his claws over his head to smooth out some of his more unkempt fur. He hasn’t slept a wink and now he’s feeling the effects of it while also being under the influence of his nerves. He’s exhausted but his anxiety is keeping him wide awake.

“Do you think they know that we’re alive? Are they trying to join the survivor camp too?” she asks herself more than she does Nick.

He gives a small shake of his head.

“They would have tried making contact when we stopped for gas, but they always pulled to the other side to fill up and never let me see what they looked like. If they wanted to make friendly conversation, they would have done so when your guy was out there putting gas in the tank.”

“So are they scavengers looking for supplies?”

Nick shrugs, an audible crack coming from his shoulders since they have been tense for so long. His entire body is stiff from his maintained posture of alertness.

“Don’t know. But I don’t think they’re going to leave us alone until they get something,” he responds, his head turning slightly to look at the stretch of road behind them. His eyes widen slightly as they lock onto something that Skye had been unable to spot.

Whatever she was looking for, he’s able to spot in an instant.

He turns his eyes forward again.

“Are they still there?” Skye asks, adopting his method of trying not to appear like he’s aware that the bus is being followed. Their pursuers haven’t made a move yet, but they might soon if they realize that their cover has been blown.

“Yeah. Dark green van a few cars back. Left light is slightly dimmer than the right one. It has a dent on the front bumper,” he tells her. She sneaks another peak and is able to spot it this time, the vehicle staying a comfortable distance behind them but never falling behind or moving to pass them. It’s now obvious to her that it’s following at the exact same speed, while all the other vehicles approach or lag behind the bus.

She doesn’t know how she didn’t see it before.

The windows are more tinted than any of the other vehicles around it, making it impossible to see what kind of mammal is following them. If it had to stop at a rest area during the night, then it’s probably a living mammal of some sort.

The bus has a bathroom on board.

The van does not.

They probably had to stop to use a restroom and then hurried to get back on the road. She wishes she had been made aware of the situation, so she could have told the driver of the bus to take an exit while the car was out of sight. Nick said there was about a ten minute gap where they could have disappeared from the highway, but he had thought that maybe them stopping at the rest area meant he was just being paranoid.

She can’t get mad at him; he didn’t know.

He might be a cop, but this isn’t the kind of situation he’s been trained for.

It’s no use wishing for what decisions could have been made. What matters now is that she’s awake, the rest of the busses are taking their own precautions and they can’t be taken by surprise. Nick’s been observing them for long enough to know a few things about them.

They might be alive.

They probably aren’t friendly.

They still think that they haven’t been found out yet.

Skye knows that if she’s going to take action, then she has to be absolutely sure that what she thinks is happening is happening.

It better not be.

But if it is, then she’ll need to take whatever steps necessary to protect the lives of those under her protection until they arrive safely at Meadowbrooke. And they’ve wasted enough time driving off the set route anyway.

Time to put Nick’s suspicions to the test.

Skye stands up out of her seat and uses the other seats to walk herself to the front of the bus, where the driver is paying close attention to his GPS. He doesn’t exactly have a set destination right now, but he is making sure not to stray too far from their path.

They only have a set amount of food and water for the trip.

Getting gas is risky enough; they wouldn’t chance trying to buy a load of supplies from a convenience store. What they have is what they’re going to have to make do with until they get to where they’re going.

“How are we doing, Wilson?” she asks him quietly. He flinches a bit and glances between his boss and the road ahead of them. His eyes are just as bloodshot as Nick’s; he’s been driving nonstop for almost a day now and is also the one that’s been risking his life to go out and get gas whenever the bus goes empty. Out of everyone on the bus, his nerves are probably the most fried.

She gives him a look of pride and sympathy.

“Good, Ma’am. Just...waiting for you to wake up and decide what to do next…” he mumbles tiredly. She places a paw on his shoulder and rubs it soothingly. He jumps a bit at the contact, not expecting her to be the kind to use physical affection to comfort him.

“Are...they still following us?” he asks, his eyes glancing over at the rearview mirrors on the side of the bus. The cars behind him are too far away from him to make out anything that would answer his question.

“We think so,” Skye tells him. “Here, let me take the wheel. I have to make sure that they’re actually following us. Don’t want to do anything drastic or lose any more time if we’re mistaken.”

The sleepy canine looks up at her for a brief moment, thinking of a reason to deny her request. But the firm look on her face shuts down anything that he might have tried to tell her. At this point, it’s her ship again and she’s the captain.

Just as they’ve done numerous times in the past while fleeing attacking vehicles, Wilson slides himself out of the seat while keeping hold of the steering wheel. The bus loses acceleration for only a few seconds while Skye slips into the seat. Her paw finds the pedal and she grips the steering wheel herself.

And just like that, the bus is under her control.

Wilson falls into the empty seat just behind the door to the bus, which Skye had originally occupied before moving back to talk to Nick the night before. She hadn’t intended on staying back there, but her exhaustion caught up to her unexpectedly fast. Poor Wilson, having to run the show all on his own with only bits of info from the survivors to help him make decisions while she slept soundly against Nick’s shoulder.

She cringes a bit at how unprofessional she’s been.

“You take it easy,” she tells Wilson, who is barely awake at this point. “You did good last night. Sorry I left you to fend for yourself. Won’t do it again, I promise.”

He just blinks down at his shaking paws, the result of a long night full of stress and anxiety. He’s one of the younger members of her group and doesn’t have nearly as much experience as everyone else. After being left in charge so suddenly, he did what he could with the info that he had. He just hopes that he made the right choices.

Without the energy to even respond to her, he passes out in his seat and slumps against the window. At this point, he might as well be a member of the undead.

Skye steels her gaze and looks to the road ahead of her.

It’s time.

At the next exit, Skye moves over and follows the off ramp leading up to some sort of heavily wooded town. With a glance to the rear view mirrors, she sees that the green van is following them, just as she feared.

She continues into the town, getting a good look at the various log cabins that make up the businesses in town. She’s never been here, but it looks like a pleasant little town. If only it wasn’t occupied by mammals who might have tried to eat her insides.

The van follows at a much longer distance behind, now that there aren’t tons of other cars around to help it blend in. Skye isn’t a fool. She can tell right away that the distance is just a trick to make her think it’s lagging behind. It’s obviously not going anywhere else.

Skye takes a deep breath and takes a few more turns, driving the bus straight back onto the on ramp, going back onto the highway in the same direction they had been going.

She just drove in a big circle.

And the van is still behind her.

Back on the highway, the van speeds up and starts closing the distance between them. The vixen’s heart pumps harder as she realizes that their pursuers are now aware of the fact that they’ve been found out. Nobody would loop around an exit just to enter the highway to go the same way.

They fell into the mental trap and now they must act.

The van gains speed and closes in on them. Skye glances back and sees that the van is now closer than it had ever allowed itself to be, so she applies more pressure to the gas pedal and accelerates the bus accordingly.

In just the ten seconds it took to drive back onto the highway, it’s turned into a chase.

Maybe they thought that the bus would just sit back and let it happen. It’s just a school bus full of helpless survivors, right? There’s no possible way they would be able to actually put up a fight.

But what they don’t know is that Skye is in her element right now.

Behind the wheel of a vehicle, she is unmatched.

And thankfully, the morning traffic is pretty light. Her ears flick to either side and her vision zooms in on the black stretch of road in front of her, her mind planning a path ahead that will allow her to maneuver the bus safely through the other cars without causing any other impacts. With the line forming in her mind, she slams the pedal to the ground and feels the bus accelerate at an astonishing rate.

What did they do to this school bus?

They had to have made some adjustments before leaving. Is this the weasel’s doing?

As soon as her paw had pressed down on the pedal, most of the survivors in the bus got pressed back into their seats. A few mammals cry out in surprise, most of them unaware of the looming danger zooming up behind the bus.

Skye feels herself floating around, becoming completely aware of everything going on around her at the moment.

The screaming passengers.

Nick standing up and looking between her and the van chasing them.

The lumpy structure hidden at the back of the bus, bolted to the floor right in front of the emergency exit. It’s covered in a sheet and most of the others assumed it to be luggage of some sort.

Wilson’s sleeping form that is somehow still dead to the world. Poor pup.

And finally, the van struggling to catch up to them.

Skye maintains the speed she’s traveling at, her eyes flicking from the road to the vehicle speeding up behind them. The school bus might be enhanced in some ways, but this van appears to be altered as well. After a few seconds, it starts to steadily gain on them. The vixen curses under her breath as she is forced to swerve around more cars, each one reducing her velocity a tiny bit.

Should she tell Nick to yank the blanket off the structure at the back?

...No, not yet. She doesn’t know if the van has backup coming or not. She should keep her cards hidden until all the chips are on the table or else she will risk being bluffed into folding. Luckily for her, the traffic coming up is starting to thin out. This will mean less swerving, but it will also allow the van to pull up alongside them without any issues.

She’ll need to find a way to keep outpacing the pursuers for now.

Normally, she would just get them going too fast to stop and then brake-check them right when they’re behind her. With a bus like this, the van slamming into the back would do little damage to her, but would probably decapitate whoever is chasing them.

But with a bus full of survivors, she can’t risk anyone getting hurt in a stunt like that. Likewise, she considers letting the van pull up alongside them so she can ram it off the road, but there would be no telling what would happen to the bus if the tires were impacted at this speed. The possibility of causing the bus to flip onto its side and roll weights heavy in her mind. If push comes to shove, she might have to do it anyway.

“Quick! Everyone, take off your shirts!” she hears a familiar voice calling from the back of the bus. She glances up into the overhead mirror and sees Nick walking up from the back of the bus, gathering the clothes from all the mammals who are willing to comply with his demand. Most do, and the majority of the passengers are larger mammals with loose, flappy clothing to match. Before Nick even reaches the front, he’s overloaded with a mound of multicolored cloth. Skye shoots him a look, but his view of her is blocked by the pile of shirts.

She doesn’t know what he’s doing.

But if he has a plan, then she’s willing to go along with it.

While still keeping her eyes on the road, the vixen slides her top layer off, exposing the hidden body armor underneath. She tosses her own coverings onto the mound just as Nick turns around and retreats to the back. She has to keep her eyes on the road, and the mirror doesn’t allow her to see exactly what he’s doing. It’s something at the very back, though, right next to the hidden structure.

The alarm blaring in her ear jolts her a bit. Every set of eyes is locked on the tod as he flips the switch for the emergency door and swings it open, exposing everyone inside the bus to the much louder sounds of the engine and highway coming from outside.

The van is close enough now to see Nick’s shirtless form clearly. Whatever they wanted to find, they’ve apparently found it. Though Nick can’t see what kind of animals they are, he can just barely make out multiple sets of eyes glaring at him from behind the tinted windows.

They’re daring him to try something stupid.

But something stupid isn’t on his menu for today.

The fox leans over the mysterious bulky object on the floor in front of the now-open emergency door and starts letting his bundles of shirts fly out behind the bus. The van, suddenly realizing that he’s attempting to blind them, brakes quickly and tries swerving out of the way of the oncoming visual obstructions.

Most of the shirts miss or flop away from the windshield upon impact, landing harmlessly on the highway behind the two racing vehicles. But the one or two shirts that do get caught on the front of the van block their view almost completely and force them to slow down even more.

The van is lagging behind the bus now, while most of the other vehicles on the road have enough sense to get out of the way. Nick throws his last shirt, which has a button that gets snagged on the sheet covering whatever is hiding under the blanket.

The wind catches the shirt and sends it flying towards the van with an extra blanket included.

Nick looks down at the freshly exposed object that had been bolted to the floor the previous day.

HIs eyes widen as he tries to comprehend what he’s looking at.

At the front of the bus, Skye sighs and mumbles a silent curse to herself.

Well, there goes the surprise.

Behind the bus, the van starts to speed back up after an oddly thick and heavy blanket finally catches the wind and floats out of the way of their view of their prey ahead of them. But once they see just what the blanket was hiding, they slam back on their brakes and withdraw from the chase.

Right next to Nick rests a mounted machine gun of some sort, the heavy metal weapon having been sitting there the whole time with the other survivors unaware of it. He sees that it’s covered with dings, scratches and other signs of use.

This isn’t new.

This gun has already seen a fair amount of action. Nick looks up to the front as sees Skye smirking knowingly at him. It suddenly hits him as to why this gun is in the back of a damn school bus, of all things.

This must have been savaged from one of Skye’s destroyed vans after the fight with Chadwick’s tiger buddies. And this is what Duke and Gazelle must have installed so quickly before she started singing to the survivors.

No wonder he heard all of those industrial noises coming from the bus!

Is this why they were covered in metal shavings and other nasty stuff?

The gun is already hooked up to its ammo supply and even appears to be loaded. How did none of them question this before? A massively-lethal weapon was right next to him this entire time!

He doesn’t have time to ask her what was going through her mind.

“Nick! Get on the gun! They have backup!” Skye suddenly shouts after glancing in the rearview mirror and seeing more vans joining the one that had fallen behind. Where did they come from?! Had they been following from an even further distance this entire time?!

Nick feels a buzzing sensation against his leg and pulls his phone out, his paws trembling as they try to unlock the device so he can see what message has been sent to him. Once he reads it, however, his expression lightens up and he feels much more confident about their chances of survival. He jumps onto the gun, wrapping his paws around the handles and taking aim with the strange weapon.

“So do we!” he shouts back to the driver.

Skye doesn’t know what he means at first until she spots something large and black flying up on them in the distance. It’s a vehicle not as big as the bus, but much bigger than the van. Is that...is that a ZPD police cruiser?! It’s huge!

How could they be here?!

They’ve been driving for almost a day now!

Nick smirks down at his phone, suddenly very glad he had sent Judy a text about the situation the night before, right after realizing that they were being followed. She had left almost immediately, allowing her to catch up with the bus even though she had been about six hours behind. 

And he’s especially thankful that she had installed that tracking app on his phone without his permission!

The vans never knew what hit them.


	47. Furry Road

Judy has never gone this fast in her entire life!

Except for maybe that one time with the sloth, but that was because he was going three times the speed limit.

And there was also that time when she was rushing to stop an elderly goat from getting away with stealing a candy bar.

...Also the movie night after she worked a full week straight. She was just really looking forward to finally being able to relax!

…

Okay, she usually goes this fast.

She’s Judy Hopps, zipping around from place to place is in her nature! A rabbit is never satisfied unless they are working at full efficiency at all times. Lagging behind the mammals around them makes them feel vulnerable, like they’re about to be picked off by some random predator.

Something about her DNA makes her speed.

Nick had smacked her upside the ear when she tried to use that excuse on him, though. So maybe her genetics don’t have as much to do with her dangerous habit as she thinks.

But she always makes sure to ticket herself when she speeds!

Most of the time!

Sometimes!

...Every so often!

…

Not since Nick joined the force as her partner...

She doesn’t have time for that right now, anyway. Nick is in trouble again! How does this keep happening to him? He’s like a magnet for bad luck!

But he always ends up okay in the end, right…?

He might always make it out, but the others around him aren’t always so fortunate. The first raid ended with a polar bear cub losing his life and joining the ranks of the undead. The second raid killed two of Chadwick’s friends. What will happen now? Will Nick make it out while the rest of the mammals in the bus perish?

She can’t let that happen. Ever since the infection took her, she’s been focusing only on the ones closest to her. Namely, Nick.

If she hadn’t been so worried about her fox and only her fox, then maybe some other lives could have been saved.

Barry’s death still hurts her terribly, especially since she knows that she’s partly responsible for it. The cub himself doesn’t blame her, but she knows a kind gesture when she sees it.

She’s been reckless.

And selfish.

And distracted.

“WAH!” she squeals as she swerves her way around a car she hadn’t seen until the very last moment. Where did it come from?! It must have been hiding in front of a truck or something!

...No, they’re the only two vehicles on this side of the highway.

Huh…

“What?! Why you call just to scream in my ear, Flopsy?! Where’s the fire?!” Finnick’s voice roars into her ear. She suddenly remembers that she’s been nonstop calling Finnick since she left, redialing every time she heard his voicemail start playing.

If she didn’t have her phone hooked up to the car charger, it would have died hours ago.

“Finn!” she cheers back at him, elated to finally have gotten him to pick up.

“What?!” he demands again.

“AAAAAAH!” she shouts for no other reason than to let some of her excess energy out. She can’t focus on a conversation if her undead adrenaline is making her practically bounce a hole in her seat. Her tail has been flicking from side to side against the cushion for so long that she can smell the material burning.

“JUDY!” Finnick screams over her. “TELL ME WHY YOU CALLED OR I’M BLOCKING YOUR NUMBER!”

The overwhelmed bunny forces herself to chill out just enough to voice her reason for contacting him in the first place. She must have left over a thousand missed calls on his phone, so he already knows something important is up. Otherwise he might be trying as hard to get her to speak clearly.

He normally would have just hung up by now.

The fact that he’s still on the line is astounding. Especially after she shrieked into his ear twice.

“Nick! she yells.

“What about him?”

“Nick is trouble!”

“You’re telling me?”

“Nononono! Nick in the trouble!”

“...Are you the trouble?”

“UGH!”

“Flopsy, just spit it out!”

“NICK IS IN TROUBLE, YOU ANGRY LITTLE MORON!” she shrieks even louder. At least she’s speaking actual words this time. Finnick is quiet for a few moments, most likely trying to convince himself not to hang up and cut the call short.

But hearing that his brother is in danger is enough to keep him talking.

“Okay...Nick is in trouble. Where is he in trouble?” he speaks slowly and clearly, hoping that she’ll follow his example.

She does not.

“Eastbound towards Meadowbrooke!”

“Uh...about how far away is he?” Finn asks nervously, a few unpleasant facts about the situation beginning to reach him.

“About twelve hours!”

“Judy...HOW IN THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO CATCH UP TO YOU TO HELP?!” he shouts, his composure flying away from his faster than he speeding brother.

Judy flinches and looks around, realizing that he’s not exactly in the best position to help from where he is.

“Oh…”

“Why didn’t you call me sooner?!” he demands. This time, Judy doesn’t hold back from her verbal lashing.

“I’VE BEEN CALLING YOU OVER AND OVER SINCE LAST NIGHT! YOU F-!”

Whatever she says for the next five minutes becomes little more than a high pitched ringing in the ears of the diminutive fox. He just listens as the normally prudish rabbit lets out the longest string of curses he’s ever heard. Every single derogatory term in existence is thrown at him, along with several that sound like she just invented them on the spot.

When she finally ends the rant with an insult about the way his one ear is slightly longer than the other, they both go quiet. She has to catch her breath even though she knows she shouldn’t have to.

Then she hears a soft clapping noise coming from the phone. The reality of what she just said to him hits her all at once.

She feels shame.

It was satisfying, but definitely shameful.

She thought she was better than that. She didn’t even know how to use half of the words she spat out properly in a sentence, so they were just sprinkled along like sentence enhancers.

“Woah. Whew! Sorry about all that Finnick! I didn’t mean any of that, I swear! Just...a lot going on currently…” she tries to tell him.

He’s quiet for a few more seconds.

“...Finn?”

“Don’t worry about it. We’re cool. Just tell me where to go. I’ll see what I can do. I’ll give Weaselton a call and see if Gazelle has anything fast enough to catch up.”

Judy doesn’t really know the area and has just been following the red line on her phone app the whole time. Instead of trying to explain where she is, she simply lifts the phone up, snaps some pictures of the passing road signs and sends them all to him.

She also doesn’t have time to ticket herself for using her cell phone while driving. But if it was any other time, she would!

Finnick makes some mumbling sounds as he examines the pictures, forming a route in his head. Having gone outside the city many times to transport less than legal goods, he knows the highways pretty well. At least he’ll have enough to get a rough idea of where they are going.

“Okay, Flops. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Try to keep the bus from changing course. Actually, give Nick a call if you can and see if he can have them turn off of the Everglade exit,” he instructs her. Judy nods at the phone.

Silence.

“Judy, you know I can’t see you right now, yeah? I don’t know if you’re moving your head. Just use your words, girl!” the fennec groans.

She blushes and stutters out an actual answer this time.

“Y-yes! Got it! Just hurry up! There’s, like, a dozen vans trailing behind them and I can’t deal with them all by myself!”

A giggle from the other end is followed by a shush urging them to be quiet.

That...didn’t sound like Finnick.

Or Barry.

Or Selena.

Who is with him?

Where is Finnick right now?

“Judith, when you’re done doing whatever it is you need to do to get Nick out of danger, we’re going to have a long talk about your vocabulary and how you talk to others. I didn’t raise you to act this way,” comes the stern voice of her mother.

Her voice is followed by an obnoxious chorus of ‘Ooh’s and ‘She’s in trouble!’s.

Judy’s face loses what color it still has.

“M-mom…?” she mumbles nervously into her phone. A few more high-pitched voices can be heard laughing at their older sister’s misfortune.

“Just do what you need to do. We’ll talk later. I’m sorry about my daughter’s behavior, Finnick. I hope you can forgive her at some point,” Bonnie sighs.

Judy’s eyes are locked on the road ahead of her but she’s not processing any of what she’s seeing.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, Ma’am. I’ll be fine, after a few days maybe. Just as long as I see my therapist and maybe...get an apology from her sometime in the future,” Finnick’s voice responds, full of false sweetness that’s just oozing with malicious glee.

That’s the first time Judy has ever heard him call anyone Ma’am. He’s doing this all on purpose and loving every second of it.

The sound of steps signals his departure from the area where her family is gathered. Once she’s sure that they aren’t being listened to anymore, she loses it.

“DID YOU HAVE ME ON SPEAKER THAT WHOLE TIME?! IN FRONT OF MY FAMILY?!” she bellows, narrowly swerving around a car that she just noticed at the last moment.

Maybe Nick’s specist crack against bunny drivers has some basis in reality...at the very least, he’s right about her.

She can hear Finnick’s smug smirk without even having to see him. It’s that kind of audible lip movement that makes a wet squick noise. She hates the sound so very, very much.

“Don’t make fun of my ears. Now get off the line, I have to make some calls so I can pull Nicky Nick’s red ass out of the frying pan. Again.”

Judy is quietly heating up for a few moments, not choosing to answer him.

“And stop thinking about his red ass!” Finn barks.

“I wasn’t!” she insists.

“...Prove it.”

“Prove i-JUST GO DO SOMETHING HELPFUL! FOR CRYIN’ OUT LOUD!” Judy shoots back, thoroughly over this little fox. If he was trying to get his revenge on her for calling him all of those names, he got it. But if he’s at the Hopps Family Farm, then might be too far away to help already. Was that whole call just a big waste of time?

She hears a click and the line goes dead.

Judy is pissed.

If he had picked up last night when she started calling, he might already be here. Then she wouldn’t be having to mentally prepare for having to fight against so many mysterious mammals by herself.

She can do it.

She’s faced bigger threats.

Like those tigers!

When she was desperately trying to find her fox, she took like five tigers like they were nothing! She launched Chadwick through the armored door! She doesn’t really remember doing it, though. Everything up until when she finally found Nick is a bit fuzzy.

All she needs to do is channel that kind of desperate rage again. She’s undead, so she might as well get some use out of it!

Judy narrows her gaze at the vans ahead, waiting for them to join the one closest to the bus, far in the distance. They don’t seem to know that she’s here, or they just don’t care that she is.

Suddenly, she sees that the bus that Nick is on is exiting the highway for some reason. This isn’t where Finnick told her to lead them! Shoot, she still has to contact Nick about that. If the little fennec has a plan, then she is going to have to trust him. She doesn’t know these roads like he does.

The van follows the bus accordingly.

The last few doubts in her mind regarding the situation disappear. This isn’t just a misunderstanding and something nefarious is definitely taking place. She doesn’t know what the drivers of these vans want, but according to Nick, they stopped at every gas station that the bus did. Any attempts to peacefully contact them would have been made already. But instead, they stayed hidden.

Judy swallows the lump of jerky she had been chewing on and prepares herself mentally for whatever might happen.

The vans ahead of her all start to enter the same exit, even though it had been a couple minutes since the bus exited. They swerve to enter the off ramp but suddenly pull away as the same bus reappears and enters the on ramp leading back onto the highway.

The vans have to swerve right back to avoid exiting. Did the bus just go in a quick circle? Apparently it did. And look at that, the same van follows right behind it.

She realizes that the circle was the final test to determine the intent of the perusers. Now that the front van knows what’s going on, it suddenly speeds up.

Judy feels a strained pressure in her chest, like her heart is trying to beat even though the body around it is dead.

The stalking quickly becomes a chase and the vans in front of her accelerate as well. Within seconds, Nick had dozens of mammals speeding towards him and he doesn’t even know how much danger he’s in.

She sends him a quick message about the backup vans and Finnick’s plan without even having to look at her phone. She hopes she didn’t just send him a jumbled mess of nothing, but she trusts her skills at driving while texting enough to assume she was successful.

The giant cruiser quickly gains speed as she applies steady pressure to the pedal. Her vision enters a tunnel, all of her focus locked on the fleeing bus. It’s surprisingly fast, but having to swerve around cars at that size is keeping it from outrunning the vans. They are just more maneuverable.

The backup vans are in sight of the bus now. The front van suddenly slows down and pulls away from the bus. Judy blinks in confusion at the numerous colorful shirts flying out over the road, catching onto the windshields of a few of the vans and forcing them to also slow down.

What is going on?

What’s with the shirts?

One piece of clothing stands out amongst the rest and catches her attention. A green shirt that she knows all too well.

Nick.

As it floats by, she manages to reach out of her window and grab hold of it. Once it’s free from the grips of the road wind, it finds itself placed firmly against the bunny’s nose.

She sniffs.

And sniffs a second time.

She gives the shirt a bite just to be certain.

It’s definitely his shirt and this is definitely his scent filling her senses with feelings of possession and longing.

It’s her shirt now.

He’ll have to beg for it back if they both make it out of this okay.

One of the vans has to pull off to the side to remove the offending garment from their windshield. Judy sees this and realizes that blinding them was exactly what her fox had planned when he dumped all the shirts from the back of the bus.

Sly fox!

But the rest of the vans keep going. Judy flies up on the slowest of the speeding vehicles before throwing her lights and siren on. They don’t react to her, but she isn’t surprised.

There’s no way they didn’t see her hulking tank of a cruiser following behind them for a while now. What she doesn’t expect is for an arm to reach out of the back window with a gun in its grip.

Loud popping sounds ring in her ears and join the chorus of impacts hitting the windshield. She yelps at the sudden attack, but keeps driving. There are multiple indents in the glass and on the hood, but the durable cruiser keeps on chugging. It’s meant to withstand the impact from smaller arms, and the mammals in the vans haven’t shown signs of being in possession of anything capable of getting through to her yet.

She pulls closer and closer.

The vans are simultaneously chasing and being chased. This only encourages them to get more reckless with their attempts to shake her.

One of the vans passes an innocent mammal’s car before slamming on the brakes. The poor driver doesn’t know what to do and swerves to avoid crashing into the much larger van in front of them.

Judy’s eyes grow wide as the smaller car swerves around the road, trying to stabilize its forward momentum.

Luckily they manage to right their course before anything disastrous can happen. The car pulls off to the side of the road, the driver probably needing a moment to calm down after the ordeal is over.

These vans are willing to risk the safety of innocent mammals.

It doesn’t matter if they’re alive. Nick said they might be. If they’re driving like this and shooting at her, they need to be stopped. And the cruiser excels at tasks such as these.

Judy floors it.

The vehicle lurches around her as it suddenly picks up even more speed and closes in on the vans before they can react to it.

She reaches down to the center console, where a silver box sits right next to where Nick is usually seated. On the box sits two buttons. She presses the first button and watches the contraption fixed to the front of the cruiser lower to the ground.

It consists of two long prongs with a series of belts strung between it. The moment it finishes lowering down, Judy drives the cruiser forward and aims the prongs around the back tire of the van that had shot at her.

As soon as the belts touch the tire, they snag and get pulled away from the prongs, flying around the wheel and ensnaring it.

A plume of smoke billows out from under the tire as it locks into place and skids over the asphalt. Judy reaches over and presses the other button, which releases the snare from the cruiser and lets her swerve around the crippled van, which slows to a halt and very nearly tips over.

Normally, if she only had one car to deal with, she wouldn’t push the second button. She would just keep the vehicle tethered to her so she could apprehend the drivers.

But right now, she doesn’t have the time or the mammal power to deal with them. She needs to get to Nick as fast as possible. So she passes the stopped van, even though it hurts her to let them get away. They’re still dangerous. She just wishes Bogo would have let her take additional backup.

But the ZPD does not operate this far out of the city. She shouldn’t even be in this cruiser right now but she knows there was no other option. She’s glad she disobeyed Bogo. If she had just taken Nick’s car, she could have gotten brained when they opened fire on her. She wouldn’t be any help to anyone at that point.

The rest of the vans seem to form a line behind the leading one. Whoever is in that one must be giving the orders. They must be trying to keep her away from the boss and the bus.

She’s finally close enough to the bus to make out the details now, and-

What?

Is that…

Is that Nick?

What’s that giant gun?!

He’s on the mounted gun with his shirt off and there’s wind blowing through his fur!

Judy bites into the shirt again, trying to sate her sudden urges. She hasn’t wanted to sink her teeth into him so badly since the first week of being undead. Why is the sight of him looking like an action movie star making her feel this way?

He hasn’t fired it yet, apparently trying to use it as a deterrent. She knows that he won’t fire it unless he’s forced to. He might act all tough and invulnerable on the outside, but she knows how much taking a life would mean to him. It’s something he’d confided in her a while back. His daily fear while working as a cop was the risk that he’d be forced to end someone so that he could continue. And he was never quite sure if he’d be able to go through with it.

He might have to make that decision very soon.

Seeing that he’s not firing the gun, the vans seem to think that it’s either broken, empty or he doesn’t know how to use it.

So they move in again.

Judy almost screams as Nick is flung from side to side, a result of the bus driver having to swerve around an increase in traffic. The vans try to repeat the motions, but their defensive line prevents some of them from being able to move around the oncoming vehicles.

Three vans are forced to swerve off the road and end up in the ditches to either side. Judy cringes as one of them catches a bad enough angle and is sent rolling into the woods to the side of the highway. She speeds by, doing her best to convince herself that they will survive the crash.

This means having to ignore the explosion from somewhere behind her.

...They had time to get out. They’ll be fine.

A second, larger explosion rings out and she can see the fire rising high into the sky in her rear view mirror.

Oh, come on! What was that thing running on, nitroglycerin?!

She can’t let herself be distracted now. Her fox is right ahead of her and four of the vans are down. Only two-thirds left!

The leading van is getting dangerously close to the back of the bus now. Nick tries aiming the gun at them, but he still isn’t firing. They aren’t backing down just from the gun’s presence anymore. They’re calling his bluff and he needs to make his decision.

Judy watches the scene with bated breath.

The vans around her aren’t driving as aggressively, so they must be paying close attention as well.

The sight of one of the numerous dents in her windshield from when the one van shot at her catches her attention.

She suddenly remembers that these mammals are armed as well.

And he wouldn’t be able to hear her even if she called out to warn him.

Nick looks like he’s arguing with someone. Is he talking to the driver? Hopefully someone is trying to tell him to take the damn shot already! These maniacs won’t stop unless he makes them!

A loud pop echoes out through the air and Judy is horrified to hear the sound of her fox yipping in pain.

They shot him!

They just shot him!

They shot her fox!

They shot HER fox!

Judy sees red for the first time since before the first raid on Gazelle’s mansion. The infection, long since shoved to the back of her mind, comes flying back to life and takes control of her body.

But she fights it.

She won’t let it have her again. No, this time she will make the infection her bitch. She needs the strength and focus that it provides but refuses the euphoria and thirst for warm blood.

Her muscles tingle with an otherworldly static and she suddenly feels like she can lift a thousand times what she normally can. Her eyesight improves and her sense of smell can pick up the lingering scent of blood.

It’s the same smell from the night that Duke bit Nick in the arm.

Nick’s blood.

The vans move in to block her again, but her foot is bending the gas pedal. The extended controls are almost snapping under her strength.

She barely notices the feeling of her cruiser colliding with the smaller vans. She keeps accelerating, which results in the vans on either side of her getting smashed out of her way in a brilliant display of sparks and broken glass shards.

Her mind is focused on one thing.

Saving that bus.

And the mammals swerving to impede her are only sealing their fates.

Alive or dead, she’s coming for them.

She is about to ram into another van when she detects movement coming from inside the bus. One red ear raises up over the top of the mounted gun. Judy expects to see another ear joining it, but it doesn’t start appearing until the fox’s face does.

Part of his right ear is gone.

Blown off by whoever shot him.

And boy, does he look pissed.

With almost the same amount of rage flowing through him as Judy, Nick takes ahold of the grips of the gun and yanks it so that it’s facing the van that had fired at him. The drivers seem to understand that by calling his bluff, they only drew a little blood but a lot of ire.

They start to slow down to avoid his aim but he isn’t letting them get away. Judy holes her breath again, waiting for him to rain death through the windshield of the offending vehicle. But instead of hellfire, she only hears a single POP.

The front tire is blown to shreds, sending the van swerving out of control. It almost rams itself straight into the side of Judy’s cruiser, but she accelerates out of the way at the last moment. The other vans that had been attempting to nudge the cruiser from behind are blindsided but the out-of-control vehicle.

A loud crunch fills the air as van meets van and they invite another van to join in on the fun.

All three impact the guard rails as they skid to a stop. The remaining vans finally stop the chase and pull over to check on their comrades. They’ll have to go back for the ones that crashed earlier. That’s if they even care enough to bother.

It seems so surreal now that it’s just Judy and the bus, with Nick hunched over the gun and holding his bleeding stump of an ear.

The danger fades behind them as they keep driving, but at a much slower speed. They don’t need to keep racing if no one is trying to catch them anymore. They’ve risked the lives of those on board the bus for long enough. The driver reaches the normal highway speed and starts acting more casual. The cruiser and bus enter more traffic together as if nothing happened and there isn’t a giant gun hanging out of the back of a school bus with a fox bleeding all over it.

Nick looks up from the gun as Judy pulls the cruiser a bit closer.

When their eyes meet, it’s like he can’t feel any pain at all. A wide smile lights up on his face and he gives her an enthusiastic wave.

The bunny smiles and waves back, her infected state having subsided without any real need for it.

She still wouldn’t say no to a nibble, though…

…

What?

He just did an action movie thing with his shirt off!

Judy lets herself gush over him for as long as it takes for him to lean back and close the emergency door back into place, hiding the gun away from the eyes of the traffic around them.


	48. Eye in the Skye

“Ssssss…”

“Oh, suck it up. It’s just an ear, you big kit. You’ll make it out of this alive.”

“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hurt!” Nick complains as the vixen above him roughly stitches the remaining tip of his ear closed. A small trickle of maroon can still be seen leaking from it, but the bleeding has otherwise stopped.

“You going to pass out on me?” Skye asks him with a stern look.

“Of course not. Can’t I just be bummed that half of my ear is gone?” he sighs. 

“Out of all the places you could have taken a bullet, you got hit in the least vital one. Just be thankful that their aim was just crap enough to keep you from losing your mind. Nice shot on the tire, by the way. I would have just let loose through their windshield, though. Much more effective than hoping the crash kills them,” Skye muses as she finishes up her patchwork on the poor tod’s mangled ear.

“I didn’t want to kill them,” he grunts back at her. She narrows her gaze suspiciously, not quite sure how to answer to that.

“Why? They shot you. They wanted to kill us. Why would you not respond as such?” she asks, genuinely confused.

“Because so far, since the infection started, only one attempt on my life was made out of pure malice. What if we opened fire on your team? You shot at us, so shouldn’t we have just killed you?” Nick argues.

“We didn’t want to harm the living, we just thought the dead were keeping you in there as prisoners!” Skye snaps, tugging a bit at his last stitch by accident. The tod yelps slightly at the sudden pain, but doesn’t lose his train of thought.

“R-right! So you attacked who you thought were a threat to us! What if these mammals in the vans are the same way? What if this is all just another big misunderstanding? I don’t want to kill if we haven’t had a chance to actually talk to them. Maybe we can work things out, like we did with you,” he reasons weakly. Skye looks into his eyes for a good few seconds, obviously wanting to say something but biting her lip to keep it held in.

“I don’t think so, Nick. I know you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but mammals like the ones that are chasing us are exactly the reason we took precautions in the first place. This isn’t the first time a vehicle headed to Meadowbrooke has been pursued. We’ve lost whole teams in the past few weeks and we have no idea what happened to them. We thought it might have been the undead until we found the wrecks of the busses in question.”

Nick swallows and braces himself for some news that will no doubt disturb him and add some context to the previous ordeal.

“What did you find?”

“Bodies. And not the kind that were munched on so they got back up and started hanging around the side of the road. These ones were just lifeless corpses. With bullet holes all over each one. Every poor mammal robbed of their clothing and possessions. All the supplies were taken, including the diesel and the food for the trip. No undead mammal would need that stuff. They wouldn’t leave the bodies without at least taking a few bites,” she explains grimly.

“So...what did they want?” Nick asks nervously.

Skye shrugs.

“Probably the food and other valuables? I’m not certain. But they didn’t want the survivors for their meat, that’s for sure. Why couldn’t they have just taken their things and let them live? It’s just such a waste of life! If I get my paws on them, I’ll make sure they know exactly what their victims felt!” she barks, her voice increasing its intensity as she speaks. She has a violent spark in her eyes that promises death and destruction onto the ones she’s deemed unworthy of their breathing privileges.

“...Why didn’t you tell us about these guys?” Nick asks, feeling a bit intimidated by the fiery vixen.

“Didn’t want everyone to freak out. We took our precautions anyway, and so far, we’ve been okay. I’m glad they attacked us instead of the other busses. We’re the one with the mounted gun, after all,” she says, smiling a bit. It’s quite a disturbing sight, since her eyes still appear wild.

“Still, would have liked to know what kind of danger you were asking me to watch out for when you went to sleep…” he sighs, using his paw to pick at some of the blood dried into his fur. It feels stiff and grimy now that it’s solidified.

Skye flinches back at his words. She knows that all of this was partially her fault for giving him the reigns without fully explaining the situation.

“You’re right, and I’m sorry about doing that to you and Wilson last night. I wasn’t in my right mind and I left you two to fend for yourselves when I should have briefed you first,” she says honestly, her eyes softening and losing their murderous intent.

Nick doesn’t like seeing her lookin sore like this. She’s supposed to be firm and unshakable. But lately her emotions have been getting the better of her.

“...So how is Wilson, anyway? He looked a bit out of it, last time I saw him,” Nick asks in an attempt to change the subject.

“Still sleeping, the poor pup. He slept through the chase and even the gunfire. His brain probably locked him down until he could get enough rest to recover from the stress he was under…” she sighs, glancing over at the sleeping bundle in the first seat. She had placed a few blankets over him just to make him feel a bit safer. It’s not that cold out, but she knows how much he likes wrapping himself up when he goes to sleep. She guesses that it reminds him of the way his mother used to swaddle him when she was bringing him places.

“Is he the baby of the team, then?” Nick asks, turning to look at the same canine. He’s still not quite sure what species he is, since he has yet to see him without most of his gear on.

“Pretty much,” Skye sighs. “Joined up during one of our previous raids. He’s the only one of my team that wasn’t already with me when the infection broke out.”

Nick turns back to the vixen, his eyes examining her a bit more closely.

“And what did you all do before this?”

She just smirks at him and boops the tip of his nose teasingly, making him scrunch his muzzle to alleviate the bothersome sensation.

“You might be a cop, but I can still keep my secrets, Wilde. I’ll just say ‘Classified’ and leave it at that. It wouldn’t make any difference to you in the long run, would it?”

“Probably not,” he admits between muzzle scrunches.

A grey and blue blur tries moving past them. Nick sees it just in time to say something before it shoots out of the bus door to join the rest of the survivors outside.

“Hey, Carrots! Where you going in such a hurry?” he playfully demands. Judy halts on the very last step and freezes up, knowing she’s been caught. She’s very obviously hiding something in her paws that she doesn’t want him to see.

“Uh...just, eh...checking to make sure the blood was cleaned off of the gun! Don’t want someone potentially getting it on them, right?” she tries to laugh her way off of the bus.

“Oh, really? Then what do ya got there? You holding out on us, Hopps?” Nick presses, not letting her get away with whatever she’s trying to snag.

She turns to face him but still has her paws behind her back, fidgeting with something. After a few seconds she lifts her paws out to show that they are now empty.

“Nothing! See?” she insists nervously.

“What did you put on your tail?” Skye asks with an unimpressed look on her face. Judy’s fake smile falls away and she tries to bolt out of the door. Skye is just a bit faster as slams the door shut right before the bunny can make her escape. She runs into it multiple times like she’s trapped into a corner or something and is desperate to get out.

Nick watches the confusing display with a look of tired acceptance.

“Okay, Fluff. Just show us what you’re hiding and we’ll open the door for you. Seriously, why is this a big deal?” he groans. Judy’s ears twitch as she listens to him, his voice soothing her primal instincts and letting her relax somewhat.

She’s got the object of mystery in her paws again.

Nick and Skye wait patiently for her to come clean. With a massive trembling exhale, the undead bunny accepts her fate and turns around to face them.

In her paws sits a chunk of something red and furry. Skye tilts her head at it, but Nick knows what it is right away.

“Hey, that’s the top of my ear! We were looking for that! We could still get that stitched back on, right?” he asks, turning to the vixen next to him. She looks at the russet piece of flesh pensively, trying to decide if it can be salvaged.

Judy looks down at the ear sadly, a look of resigned disappointment spreading across her features. Her paw grips the chunk a little tighter, like she doesn’t want to let it go.

“I mean...if you want me to rip all the stitches out and start again, I could. But it’s been on the ground for a good while now. Might be risking infection if I connect it now,” she informs him. Nick’s eyes are too busy scanning Judy’s reactions.

Why was she trying to hide it and get off the bus? Does she want it for some reason?

She’s a zombie.

Does...she want to eat it or something?

“Judy…” Nick starts. She flinches but still refuses to look up at him. He reaches down to her and her paw instinctively grips the ear even harder.

“Do you want to keep that?”

Her eyes open slowly and she looks up at her fox, her nose twitching rapidly. He’s giving her a soft look and she can’t help but melt a bit on the inside.

“What?” Judy and Skye ask at the same time.

“My ear...chunk. Did you want it? Is that why you were trying to sneak off with it?” he asks again.

Judy looks shamefully down at her feet, feeling the coldest she’s ever felt. How is she supposed to explain why she was stealing a piece of him to his face? There’s no way to word it without making herself sound like she just wants him for his meat.

“I...I was...yes…” she admits with a voice even more shaky then when she apologized to him under that bridge. That was the first time she ever saw him in a warmer, more intimate light. And what if he doesn’t accept her apology this time? She is letting her urges take over and now he might not feel safe around her anymore.

Skye looks between the two, curious to see what Nick will decide to do.

The fox suddenly reaches down to the ear. Judy opens her paws so that he can take the chunk from her. He can almost hear a tiny whine escaping her throat. She must really want it. That’s okay, though.

He presses his paws to hers and pushes the ear closer to her chest, letting her regain her grip on it.

“You can have it, Fluff,” he says with a smile.

Her nose twitches even faster.

“R...really…?” she asks almost silently. Nick nods again and places a paw on her head. She accepts the affection greedily, already having felt the effects of missing him.

“Sure. I know you’ve been dying for a bite of me since the first time we met,” he says with a sly smirk. She shoots him a more lively glare that seems much more like the bunny he knows and loves so dearly.

“Just...don’t eat it all at once, I guess,” he shrugs. He’s still a bit iffy on the idea of her devouring a piece of him, but he knows that it will make her happy.

Judy looks down to the furry piece of flesh and rubs it softly with her fingers. She lifts it to her face and sniffs it gently, the scent of her fox sending shivers down her spine. It’s not as warm as she would have liked, but it’s still a piece of him.

Nick and Skye watch as she opens her mouth slightly. The vixen doesn’t really feel comfortable with this situation and turns away from the act of cannibalism.

The tod just watches with squinted eyes. That piece of him has been attached to him for his whole life. If she bit it while it was still a part of him, he would have surely died. But now that it’s severed, she can bite it to her heart’s content and it won’t harm him in the slightest.

But instead of ripping the tip of his ear to shreds, she lightly places her two front teeth on the edge and gives the flap a tiny nibble. She doesn’t even really bite down. She applies enough pressure to get a taste and then stops, letting the feelings of euphoria pass through her body.

She shivers.

Nick shivers at the same time.

Something passes between them, and it isn’t the infection. Both feel a bit closer to each other, even if the act of gnawing on a bloody chunk of his ear isn’t naturally intimate. 

It’s the context that matters for them.

She finally gets her bite.

“...I’m going to save this and nibble on it whenever I miss you…” she mumbles. Nick is touched by the gesture. Skye places her paws over her ears to avoid hearing them. She isn’t grossed out, though.

She just wishes she could have what they have.

Jack would have loved a piece of her ear…

She sighs as the two mammals next to her hug each other close and whisper promises about the future to each other. Do they have to show off how lucky they are to have each other? Nick knows how jealous she is of them…

No, that’s not fair.

Nick isn’t doing it to hurt her. He’s willingly leaving Judy for possibly years just to help a cause he could have just as easily ignored. She should be commending him, not scolding him!

She just waits patiently for the two lovebirds to finish talking about the bloody ear.

Off in the seat behind her, Wilson stirs gently and makes a few mumble noises. They’re the first signs of life he’s shown since he went to sleep.

Skye wants to do something nice for him. He went above and beyond for far longer than he should have. He never even got his license and yet he drove a bus for twelve hours straight by himself.

And got gas multiple times!

He will likely have some stress issues after this...maybe she should have him stay back at Meadowbrooke for awhile, just to give him some time to cool off and process everything he’s gone through so far.

He might not want to, but she knows how anxiety can affect decision-making if left unchecked. He could make the wrong choice next time when put under pressure and break down because of it.

Maybe she can try to hook him up with a cute coyote gal when they arrive. Then he would have a reason to stay there and keep himself out of further danger. He’s too young to throw everything away.

If only there was a-

“Woah!” Wilson suddenly yelps as he bolts upright. Skye blinks at the sudden movement, assuming that he’s just woken up from a bad dream or something. 

But his attention being suddenly drawn to something outside the bus sends Skye into high alert. She gets up and follows Wilson as he jumps over Nick and Judy and pushes his way through the door to the bus.

Nick and Judy follow right after Skye, fearing what could possibly be happening now even after everything they’ve already been through.

Apparently they don’t get to take a decent break.

At first, the other three can’t tell what Wilson is looking up at. But when he unslings his rifle and takes aim at a black shape in the sky, they realize just what has him so spooked.

It’s a drone.

A black remote controlled drone is hovering in the air high above the clearing they parked at. It’s just floating there, peering down at them like an owl would a mouse.

It’s not moving anywhere.

Because it already found what it was looking for. And Wilson can see the camera facing the clearing that him and his bus load of survivors are standing in.

The young coyote growls in frustration and takes aim at the drone. It’s probably too far away for him to land a clean shot; it’s such a small target and it’s swaying side to side, so the chances of him hitting it would be-

POP

The drone bursts into pieces, the various components scattering all over the treetops that were supposed to serve as their cover. The gun might be suppressed, but the sound of the shot is enough to scare all of the survivors that had been walking around to stretch their legs. The forest around them had to do in terms of bathrooms.

“Did they see us?” Skye demands urgently.

“They’ve been seeing us. There’s no telling how close they are now. How long have we been stopped?” Wilson inquires nervously.

“Few hours…” Skye mumbles darkly. He gives her a look of terror and immediately starts waving his arms towards the survivors in an attempt to get them back into the bus.

“Wilson!” Skye barks, stopping him.

“What?! We need to get out of here before they arrive!”

“We’re supposed to be meeting someone here pretty soon! We have to stay!” Skye tells him firmly, using all her strength to hold his arms down to his side.

“We can’t just wait, Ma’am! The vans are probably almost here by now! Are we going to risk all of their lives on someone who hasn’t even shown up yet? What if they don’t?”

Skye does something that none of them expected.

She reaches out, wraps her arms around the taller canine and pulls him into a tight hug.

Everyone around them stands in stunned silence. 

Even the survivors know that she isn’t normally like that.

Nick tilts his head at the scene.

Judy nibbles the ear because it tastes good.

Wilson doesn’t know what to do. He’s been going non-stop for so long that he almost forgot what hugging even feels like. His parents were turned and then later put down, both times right in front of him. He was so sure that he would have to sign off on physical affection forever.

But here’s his Captain, hugging him like he’s a pup.

His body reacts before his mind does.

He slumps against her, something inside of him giving away and finally relaxing for the first time in a month. He lets out a massive breath and actually manages to loosen his shoulders.

It feels good to stop and take a hug break.

“Thank you, Wilson. You’ve been great! I know you’re young and not ready to lead on your own. But you did anyway. And I’m so proud of you! But right now, I need you to just trust me, okay? This will work out for us, I promise. You don’t need to be the hero right now. Alright?” she coos to him like a mother would to a child who had just gone through a traumatic experience.

He looks her in the eye and sees nothing but warmth and sincerity.

A small nod is his only response. She smiles up at him and squeezes a bit tighter before letting go. He has to wipe a bit of moisture out of his eyes.

After everything he’s been through under her command, she feels more like a guardian than a boss to him. But with the situation they’re in, he’s not sure if that’s a good thing.

The two are broken out of their moment by the sound of approaching vehicles driving up the same path they had traveled in to get to this abandoned clearing.

Without the drone, they probably wouldn’t have been found. This is the spot Finnick specifically told them to park at once they turned off at the Everglade exit. It’s a wide stretch of grass surrounded by dense forests, with the only way in being a foreboding dirt road with warning signs posted all over.

The vans, at least the ones still able to drive, speed along the dirt road and charge straight at the clearing where all of the survivors are standing.

Screams echo out into the clearing as the survivors scramble to get back into the bus where at least they have some protection.

Skye doesn’t move. She just glares at the approaching vehicles as they get closer and closer. Wilson adopts a look of tired resignation and he watches his death approaching him.

Nick and Judy don’t know what to do. She tugs him to the bus, but he doesn’t want to leave Skye and Wilson on their own. His bunny tugs harder on him, this time pulling him towards her cruiser.

Their cruiser.

She couldn’t stand to see him getting gunned down. He would just be disappearing out of her life without even the promise of turning and coming back as something like her. If that bullet earlier was just a little lower, he would be gone…

Judy won’t give them another chance.

She uses her enhanced undead strength to drag her fox away from the danger zone and towards where the vehicles are parked. She notices that the back of the bus is facing the path where the vans are driving right at them.

Did Skye do that on purpose?

Instead of the cruiser, Judy pulls her fox to the bus and shoves him roughly inside to join the rest of the scared survivors. Some of them give her uncertain looks, though that might just be because she’s holding the severed tip of an ear. At least she’s not chewing on it.

Outside, the vans speed up to the two canines and slam on their brakes right before they would have ran them over. Skye doesn’t flinch. Wilson is too exhausted to care. The stare down has already started and the assailants haven’t even left their vehicles yet.

Only five of the vans are apparently functional. This means the remaining members of the attacking force have all packed themselves into the little space that each van offers, nearly exceeding the weight limit of each one.

The vans all turn off as everyone watches the stalemate.

At first, nobody moves a muscle. It’s silent in the field except for the occasional sound of wind flowing through the trees. A few birds sing their songs, blissfully unaware of the tension felt by the mammals below them.

Many of the survivors wish they were birds right now. Then they could just fly away and never have to think about this situation ever again.

The door to the frontmost van clicks open and a large figure steps out.

A terrifying face lifts itself over the top of the door as a lion stands to his full height and scowls at the smaller mammals standing in front of his group. His greying fur is matted with blood from a recent cut on his head that he has neglected to clean. There’s something off about the position of his jaw, leading some of the survivors to assume it had been broken at one point and never properly fixed. The lion’s eyes burn into the fox and coyote, promising nothing but malice for them.

The rest of the vans quickly empty as the rest of the attacking group flow out into the grass.

They’re all large cats of different species.

Predators, through and through.

Skye can tell right away that they don’t want to talk. There’s nothing the vixen can tell them that they haven’t heard before from their previous victims.

Looks like violence will be their solution for today.

Nick’s hopes for a peaceful resolution are crushed the moment that the lion smiles and displays his mouthful of chipped or broken teeth. A wild flame burns in his eyes and everyone around knows that they’re not dealing with an ordinary feline.

This is a madcat.

And after the stunts that they pulled earlier, he’s out for blood.

Skye looks up to the clouds, counting down the seconds to when her plan can go into effect.

Nick said his brother always keeps his word.

And now it’s his time to prove it.


	49. Buying Time

There’s a distant hum echoing across the field.

Skye stares deep into the eyes of the psychotic feline, looking for any signs of possible weakness. She wants Nick to be right. She wants this to be a misunderstanding like her raid was. But deep in her heart, she already knows the truth.

This is the group that has been slaughtering busses full of survivors. A few of them are wearing armor taken from her fallen comrades. Others are adorned with clothing that was no doubt pulled from the bodies of the innocent survivors that they mercilessly gunned down.

And the lion is their leader.

She wants to yank her gun out and blow his brains out right this instant. But she knows that this would only cause the deaths of her, Wilson and everyone on board the bus.

She can’t afford to waste any more innocent life.

These maniacs have taken enough from the world.

She knows she swore to protect life, but she’ll need to extinguish it in this case.

For the greater good.

But she needs to wait for a specific moment to act. Right now, she’s outnumbered and outgunned. Every one of the large cats is wielding some sort of firearm, most likely stolen from other survivors.

At this point, they’re basically just wearing trophies from their previous hunts. Why are they doing this? The world ends and suddenly they think they can just turn into post-apocalyptic raiders?

They’re no better than the camps of undead who kept survivors trapped so they could feed on them at their leisure. Except at least those monsters actually ate because their infected minds told them to.

“What do you want?” Skye asks the lion suddenly. His fiery eyes turn to look at her. She needs to get him talking so that she can buy some more time.

They’re not here yet so she can’t proceed. She thought it would take longer for the vans to find them, if they managed to at all. She hopes against the odds that everything will be okay in the end. She told Wilson to trust her to calm him down, but she knows that she barely trusts her own words at this point.

They got here too fast and with too many remaining members.

She’ll have to improvise for now.

Beside her, Wilson maintains his glare, his unshakable spirit betraying how young he is. The cats are almost all bigger than him, but he doesn’t let them know that he’s nervous.

If he’s going to die, it’s going to be alongside his captain. The one who took him in and gave him breakfast right after saving him from his own parents. There’s no other mammal he’d rather be next to in his last moments.

He sees how twitchy the other cats are, their eyes constantly breaking focus to glance back at their leader for some kind of signal. They’re a lot more nervous than he is. After what happened on the highway, a lot of them are probably still in shock. A few of the bloodier felines are swaying gently as if in a daze.

Maybe concussions.

That’s good. If they can’t balance well, they won’t be able to aim accurately. He can use that. It will only take him a few seconds to drop a good amount of them, if given the chance. What he needs is a massive distraction of some sort to confuse them while he lines up his shots.

If they manage to focus on him and charge, he’ll be a goner. He knows they’ll slaughter him if they get their claws in him. So he’ll have to hope that his gun can outdo all of theirs. 

And since they are all using firearms unsuited for larger mammals, he’s liking his chances. That’s what they get for relying on weapons stolen from their victims.

They’ll pay for their actions with blood.

He’ll make sure of it.

“What do you want?” Skye asks again. The tiger says nothing yet, his gaze moving over to the two large vehicles parked behind them. The ZPD cruiser draws an especially loud growl from his throat. Survivors shouldn’t have access to vehicles and guns like these, and it only infuriates him.

“Who was the driver?” his voice rumbles, sending shivers down the spines of every survivor hiding in the bus.

The humming on the distance has grown louder.

Skye glances up but can’t see anything yet. They’re too far away to act. She needs to keep stalling for now.

She goes to answer him, but one of his pride mates speaks up.

“The taller one is the one we saw pumping gas. It’s him,” they say to their leader. The lion glances back at the one speaking and gives him a nod. Before Skye can react, the lion’s arm whips something up in their direction.

The sound of gunfire rings out across the field, startling all of the spectating mammals. Without even looking at who he was really aiming at, the lion empties a magazine in their direction, the small black box in his grip boasting a surprisingly fast fire rate. He doesn’t care that most of the shots are landing harmlessly in the dirt or the trees behind them.

Skye had been taken by surprise by the sudden act of aggression that had little to no warning. She was asking him a question one moment, and then she was being carried in Wilson’s arms the next. The young coyote had managed to fire off a round himself, dropping a mangy looking cheetah that had been standing next to the lion. By the time the lion’s magazine empties, Wilson is behind the corner of the bus with Skye held tightly to his chest.

She’s in a daze, her brain struggling to process the last few seconds. It takes her a few more moments to wake up and take note of her surroundings.

Her heart is beating rapidly.

Her ears are ringing.

Her vision is blurry.

There’s a wet, warm spot growing against her uniform.

She turns her head and sees Wilson trying to catch his breath behind her. But something is not right with him. As he inhales, something catches in his lungs and suddenly he’s choking.

The vixen’s eyes widen. She jumps out of the young coyote’s arms, which don’t have the energy to resist. They just flop down and hang limply at his sides. She tries to look into his eyes but they’re unfocused.

He’s not looking at her. He’s just staring at something high up in the sky as he coughs up his precious lifeblood.

She pats his cheeks to try to get his attention. Her vision becomes more blurry as she sees how much blood is staining his armor now. 

How did the bullets get through?!

He’s wearing his armor!

She notices that most of the blood isn’t even coming from the back or chest plates. There are a couple indents from where the bullets stuck in the Kevlar, but those aren’t wet with blood.

He’s leaking out of his side

Right under his arm.

He was struck as he was turning around to run with her in his arms, multiple bullets finding him and a couple managing to sneak past the vest’s protective limits.

How?

How did he get hit multiple times while she got out unscathed?

She looks at him and finally recalls what happened in those fateful few seconds between the gun getting pulled and him slumping against the bus.

He threw himself over her.

She lost track of her location because everything went dark around her. And everything went dark because her face was pressed into his chest. He ran as fast as he could after getting his single shot off, but couldn’t outrun the blindly fired hail of bullets that peppered him.

She feels someone nudging her urgently. Skye turns her muzzle towards two blurry shapes, one of them grey and one of them red. She can’t see through the sudden moisture filling her eyes.

Why can’t she see?

What’s going on? 

She can still only hear the ringing in her ears. Is she dreaming? Nothing's making sense and she can’t tell what’s real.

She turns back to Wilson.

He’s so red.

It’s staining his beautiful tan fur.

He should wash it before it dries and becomes a chore to scrub out. Is he bathing like she told him to? She doesn’t want to have to issue him a warning for his upkeep, but the pup needs to learn one way or another. How will he ever hope to settle down and have a family if he can’t even keep himself properly groomed?

“SKYE!” Nick’s voice barks, finally breaking through to her. Had he been calling out to her? What does he want?

She turns her head weakly towards the russet tod, her vision clearing just enough to see how wide and panicked his eyes are.

“What?” she mumbles in response.

“He’s losing too much blood! We have to do something!” Nick yells, startling the dazed vixen. She looks back to the young coyote as if seeing him clearly for the first time.

It hits her like a bolt of lightning.

Wilson is dying right in front of her. He saved her and took the bullets himself. The young coyote has barely been able to experience life...and he’s suffering because she got blindsided and froze under pressure.

“You...you stupid pup! Why did you do that?!” she cries out, gripping his uniform and snarling in his face.

Wilson choking on his own blood is her only answer.

“Skye, stop! You’re making it worse!” Judy screams from the other side of her.

“I told him not to be a hero! I told him! I don’t care if I die! He sacrificed himself for nothing!” she wails. Nick harshly pulls her away from the bleeding coyote, making sure that she doesn’t kill him faster.

“He obviously doesn’t see it that way!” Judy says firmly, getting into the vixen’s face to let her know that she means business.

Skye looks into her fierce violent eyes and lets out a distraught hiccup.

“What…?”

“He thinks that you’re worth it. Don’t take that away from him. I’m sorry about the rabbit you were with, I really am. But him being gone doesn’t mean you can’t let others in ever again! Look at him! He pulled you to safety by giving up his own! You matter to him and that’s what’s important!” Judy scolds, not letting the vixen get a word in edgewise. Skye just sits there and listens, feeling very small in the face of the fired-up bunny.

She looks to Wilson, who is barely able to focus on her.

He smiles faintly.

He’s just happy to see that she made it out okay. It doesn’t matter to him that his lungs are filling with blood. He doesn’t care that he’s dying in the middle of nowhere.

He’s just happy to be with her.

He looks so peaceful just sitting there, his eyes glancing back up to the sky.

Skye feels the urge to cry reaching her again.

With great care, she leans closer to the coyote and undoes the strap that secures his helmet to his head. She then slowly lifts the armored headwear up off of him so that she can see his eyes without the visor tainting their true color.

Nick and Judy watch sadly as the coyote’s features are fully revealed for the first time since they’ve met.

He really is young.

The poor pup is probably no older than sixteen.

His fur is a pleasant sandy ash color that would probably only get darker with age. His eyes are a piercing yellow that make him look like he's focusing intensely on whatever he happens to be looking at, even if his gaze is soft. His face is unmarred by scars or marks that one would expect to see from someone in his position.

Skye sets the helmet to his side and reaches up again, cupping his cheeks with her paws. He blinks sleepily at her, but she can tell that he’s afraid that he upset her with his decision to rescue her.

He didn’t mean to let himself get shot like this.

He thought the armor would keep him alive as he bolted for the only cover around. But luck wasn’t on his side this time and he managed to get himself shot in one of the only ways that would be fatal for him.

In his fizzling mind, all that he can think about is how much of a screwup he is. He defied her order and had to play the hero again. They might have both made it out okay if he just pulled her to the ground and let her snap out of her daze on her own.

But instead he went and got himself killed.

And she’s disappointed. She thinks he’s stupid, and she’s probably right. He’s just another stupid puppy and that’s what he’s going to die as.

His eyes sink lower, unable to maintain contact with hers. The looks of bitter resignation she’s giving him hurts too much. Why can’t he just stop feeling anything? That sounds like it would be nice. The entry wounds have already gone mostly numb.

Now if only his mind would follow suit. 

The humming in the sky has grown so loud that even Wilson has to look up to see where it’s coming from. Skye, Nick and Judy look up just in time to see a massive helicopter looming over them, the wind from the tandem-rotors sending leaves and other forest debris flying past them.

A few surprised shouts come from the other side of the bus, where the lion and his cats are still standing. They’re uncertain what to make of the sudden arrival at first.

Skye turns her attention back down to her fallen friend, the moisture in her eyes getting blown away by the fierce wind.

Of course they show up now, after shots have already been fired. Why couldn’t they have arrived only a few minutes earlier?

Nick sees that it’s time to act and stands up, giving the group one last glance before entering the bus. He wants to stay, but he would be no help. He has a role to play and it’s not here.

Wilson blinks dizzily around at the random leaves and twigs being blown around. Everything is dreamlike to him in his failing state of mind.

Skye clings to the coyote and hugs just right enough to let him know that she cares about him. He turns his head to her, his mouth slacked open a bit in surprise.

Does she forgive him for disobeying her? She’s been awfully huggy lately so maybe she isn’t mad at him anymore.

The wind feels nice blowing through his fur.

This really is a lovely spot of land. He would have liked to live in a place like this. Build a house, maybe find someone to share it with and just hide away from the rest of the world.

Not a bad place to go out, all things considered. He can even smell the tell-tale aromas of a river nearby. Oh, that would have been the life. Going down to fish every day and feeding himself.

The worried eyes of his captain come back into view, pulling him back down into his own body. Had he been floating? He felt like he was above himself for a moment there, just enjoying the landscape.

What’s going on?

“I can’t...I can’t stop the bleeding like this…” Skye says to someone off to the side of him. A small grey pay enters his tunneling vision as it places itself on the vixen’s shoulder.

“...There’s a way I can help, but…” the mystery shape says.

“What is it?! Just do it! Help him, please!” his captain begs. He doesn’t like hearing her like this. She is always so unshakable and sure of herself. Hearing her about to fall to pieces is breaking his heart.

“Skye, I’m talking about turning him.”

He doesn’t hear anything said for a few moments after that. All he can make out is a labored breathing that’s getting more frantic.

“He...would still die…”

“Yes, he would.”

“...But he would come back…?”

“As long as the infection reaches his brain before he passes…”

His captain inhales sharply, a loud sniffling sound coming from her nose. She exhales much more gently.

“I...don’t know if I could do that to him...I’d be damning him to an unnatural life just because I’m not ready to see him go…”

The stranger sighs.

“Why don’t you ask him what he wants to do? Not as his leader or boss or whatever you go by to him. But as his friend. And mentor.”

“C-captain…” Wilson manages to choke out, a disturbing amount of blood spilling out of his lips.

The other two look at him, surprised that he’s able to speak at all. Apparently he’s been awake enough to listen to them discussing his death.

“Tyler…” Skye whispers softly to him, the first time she’s called him by his first name in ages. It catches what remains of his focus and brings the world around him back into clarity. The tunnel he was staring down zooms in and he can see normally again. But with the awareness comes the pain from his wounds. He shuffles uncomfortably and lets out a muffled groan, his movements being halted by two familiar paws on his cheeks.

Gunshots erupt from somewhere on the other side of the bus.

The back door of the bus flies open and a much louder volley of shots rings out into the madness happening all around him.

Shouts from the survivors and the madcats echo between the trees and disappear into the wilderness around them.

The overwhelming sound of the helicopter doesn’t go away, and instead gets even closer as it touches down in the field.

The bullets from the cats ricochet off of the thick metal hull of the flying machine, not a single one managing to pierce it.

A violent roar of rage can be heard coming from the leader’s position, signaling his group where he wants them to attack.

All of this chaos.

All of this carnage.

And Wilson is being offered the choice to drift away from it forever and be at rest…

Or he can stay in it.

Make it louder.

Toss his own weight around some more.

Get some more time to save some lives.

And all he’ll have to give up in ever fitting in with the living again. Never having pups of his own. Having to eat like a zombie would.

It’s not a hard decision.

There’s only one way for him to stay with his captain and show her that he still wants to keep fighting to make her proud of him.

He’s not ready to lose his voice forever. He still has a great deal more screaming to do.

The fading coyote gives them the slightest nod of his head and squeezes Skye’s paw with the last of his strength. Skye sniffs and hugs him again, not caring that she’s getting his blood all over her.

She turns to Judy and nods.

The bunny looks a bit nervous about the idea of purposely turning someone, but she knows that the poor pup is dying and this is the only way to keep him around.

The small undead rabbit moves in closer and opens her mouth around his neck. He doesn’t have much time left, so she needs to do this as close to the brain as she can.

Among the sounds of gunfire and screaming going on around her, she resigns herself to the madness and clamps her teeth down into the flesh of Wilson’s throat.

Skye holds onto his paw, her heart shattering into millions of pieces as she feels his grip loosen. His entire body slumps back against the side of the bus, finally relaxed.

The vixen looks around frantically, looking for any signs that he is waking back up. He doesn’t move.

Was Judy too late?

Did the infection not reach his brain in time?

What if...she’s no longer infectious?

Before she can see what is happening, Judy pulls her roughly back toward the doors on the bus. Skye feels like she’s being dragged away from him for the last time and tries to fight the bunny. She’s surprised how strong Judy actually is and is unable to halt herself.

“No! I can’t leave him like that! He was going to settle down and have a family! He’s a good puppy!” she screams and struggles against the rabbit’s overwhelming might.

“Calm down, you drama queen! You can’t be around him when he wakes up!” Judy urges as she is forced to practically lift the heavier mammal up the stairs of the bus. Inside the metal tube of a vehicle, all the survivors have their ears pressed down against their heads to lessen the deafening noise coming from the mounted gun.

Nick is firing like his life depends on it, not stopping to even let the barrel cool off at all. It glows a hellish red and casts his face in a light unlike anything Judy has ever seen.

...His shirt is still off.

She shoves Skye into one of the front seats before turning away to nibble on the tip of Nick’s ear again. She can still taste Wilson’s blood, which is no doubt staining her entire face red.

The taste of her fox sends shivers down her spine that overwhelm the urge to consume everything in this smorgasbord of living bodies. 

Outside, Skye can see nothing but absolute chaos.

But before she can focus on any one instance of violence, she notices that one of the cats has slipped by the fighting and is making his way to the bus. He has a gun in each paw and from the way he’s holding them, she can tell that they’re loaded.

He must think that no one sees him.

But then his eyes turn up and lock together with those of the vixen leader of the survivors. His face sours and he lets out a vile hiss.

He lifts one of the guns and aims it right at her face. But she isn’t paying attention to him anymore. Her focus is placed firmly on the tan colored streak that blindsides the jaguar and crashes into him, sending both of them to the ground in a thrashing heap.

The sounds of yowling and hissing turn into screams of pain as the large cat is torn into by the new participant in the fight.

Skye enables sharply.

Tyler’s sandy ears flick in her direction and he stands up to his full height to face her.

He’s covered in the blood of the mammal dying under him. His beautiful yellow eyes are glowing red now and the blood leaking from his neck has turned a grisly black color. He’s twitching like his body is under the control of something else entirely.

But he’s here.

He’s moving.

He may not be alive, but he’s awake.

And she’s never been happier to see him.

Skye offers the coyote a tiny wave from behind the window. Tyler watches her intensely, a feral look still burning in his eyes. Then he licks his chops briefly and tastes the warm blood in his mouth, sating his mindless hunger for flesh.

His shoulders relax a bit.

His eyes stop burning so brightly. 

He smiles back at her and returns the wave almost nonchalantly, trying to act like it’s no big deal that he just died, came back to life and ate a jaguar’s throat.

All in a day’s work for him.

Apparently.

Skye scoffs and shakes her head at him as he turns around and throws himself into the fray.

Chaos.

Chaos reigns.


	50. Red Light, Green Light

The moment the helicopter touches the grass, Finnick can see dents forming in the metal from the smalls arms being fired at them. He holds his breath and moves to cover as much of his son from harm as he can, though he only comes up to the much-larger mammal’s waist. The bullets don’t seem to be getting through, so that they have that going for them.

He didn’t want to bring Barry. He managed to convince Bianca to stay back at the Burrow with Selena and the rest of the Hopps family, and he thought Barry knew he was also supposed to remain there. But since he didn’t explicitly tell him what the plan was, the cub must have assumed that he was also meant to board the helicopter that had landed in the field next to the burrow.

Either that or he snuck on.

All the undead fennec knows is that once the helicopter was already on its way to the meeting spot, he found Barry sitting in the back of the cargo area looking super guilty.

What does he expect to do? He’s a cub!

Finnick knew already that things would probably get ugly if the ones chasing Nick managed to follow them to his spot in the woods. It’s got plenty of visual obstacles in the way, but it’s hard to miss a bus traveling down the dirt road.

He looks over at the others covered ear to tail with protective gear.

Chadwick’s remaining two friends are looking absolutely monstrous with their body armor helmets. Apparently they aren’t willing to risk getting shot in the head like their two fallen comrades from the incident with Skye’s team. It helps that they’ve had time to prepare. Finnick hasn’t heard them say anything since he boarded the helicopter and he’s frankly not very certain either of them are still alive.

Gazelle sits on the other side of the helicopter, having traded in her hoodie and jeans for kevlar and steel plating. This is the first time Finnick’s ever seen her dressed like she’s going to war, and he’s not entirely sure that it’s a good omen. She has a look of concentration on her face as she struggles to fit Duke into something that can protect him from the bullets that are already peppering the flying machine around them.

At his size, getting hit could very possibly blow him apart. But at the same time, he’s going to be much harder to hit or even see. They didn’t have anything in his size, so he’s spent the trip assembling himself something to wear made from bits of other uniforms they’ve found.

Finnick can tell from the look on Gazelle’s face that she’s already fearing what might happen to her best friend. She’s probably feeling a lesser version of what Finnick is going through with Barry. They’re both going into a situation that is looking to turn deadly with mammals that they can’t stand to lose.

Further back, Finnick’s adoptive mother is sitting with a helmet strapped to her chest. Corduroy is strapped inside the helmet of course, but it is still a strange sight to take in.

She’s just another loved one that Finnick doesn’t want to let fight out of fear of losing her.

He didn’t even mean to let her know what was going on with Nick, but she was at Gazelle’s place when he made the call requesting help. So she managed to pry the information from the pop star and inserted herself into the rescue plan, not willing to let her son’s life almost get taken from her yet again. The incident with Skye’s group must still be hurting her.

He gets it.

He really does.

But she’s a blind, aging vixen and to his knowledge, her thirst for blood is weak. Now that she has control of herself, will she be able to take lives?

Finnick knows very little about Corduroy besides for the mumblings he heard about what happened during the wolf raid. If the rumors are true, then the manic tod might have actually racked up the highest kill count of anyone there that night.

Somehow.

So his plan to save his brother from the claws of the highway raiders suddenly has the added risk of possibly losing way more than just his brother if it all goes south. He got everything arranged as fast as possible, but it’s still taken a good few hours to get here, even by helicopter.

He just hopes that he’s not too late. The aggressors are definitely still here and aren’t out of ammunition yet, so hopefully they’ve yet to use them on the bus full of survivors. Finn hasn’t seen his brother yet and can only hope that he’s still alive. It doesn’t help that the cargo section of the helicopter doesn’t have any windows that he can look out of to get an idea of where the situation is right now.

“Back! Get back!” he barks at Barry, who tries to comply. The cub is fixed up with his own padded armor and headwear, which are both tight on him due to his width. Finnick had strapped some pillows to his son as well, just in case.

The two tigers suddenly stand up at the same time, hearing some sort of signal that the others are deaf to. All eyes shift to their hulking forms as they move around the cargo area and gather some large rectangular plates from a storage hold. One by one, more and more of the shields are passed to the others. The black objects are meant for larger mammals, so the mammals smaller than Gazelle have a hard time trying to pick them up.

Finn shoots a confused look at the two tigers, but neither of them are paying any attention to him. They’re too busy dragging some sort of heavy metal structure over to the side door of the helicopter. Have these two done this before? Every movement they make is executed like they’ve practiced it countless times before. The two of them work together like a well-oiled machine to prepare whatever the metal structure is.

Marian has a bit of an issue carrying her shield because of Corduroy’s bulk, but ends up finding a position for herself that allows her to wield it. Barry lifts it like it’s nothing and waves the objects around like it’s a metal kite, unsure of what he’s meant to do with it.

“Hey! Hey, no! Put that down! You’re not going out there!” Finnick barks, startling his son into dropping the shield. He snarls out of frustration and fear for Barry’s safety, but his expression softens when the cub flinches back like he’s about to be struck.

Finnick takes note of his own posture.

He’s tensed up and bristled, with his arms flexed and his lip curled. Even though the cub is so much bigger than him physically, the booming sound of Finn’s voice is obviously opening some fairly recent wounds.

The small fox takes a deep breath and relaxes himself for the cub’s sake. In turn, Barry slowly loosens his muscles and manages to peer back down at his father.

“I’m not going to hit you,” Finn tells him softly. “I’m just worried that you’ll get hurt again. We almost lost you twice already, I’m not willing to try for a third. With my rotten friggin’ luck, this could be the time they manage to put you down for good. And I can’t let that happen, Barry.”

Barry peers down at his adoptive father, their eyes meeting. The cub chews on his lip for a few seconds, trying to form a proper response in his head. Outside, the bullets are still leaving fresh dents on the metal of the helicopter walls. The polar bear turns his head to the sounds and takes in just how dire the situation really is.

He just wanted to help. That was his mentality when he causally entered the helicopter and then hid himself away until it took off. What he didn’t expect was the massive amount of guilt and fear he felt the moment the helicopter took off.

What did he do?

He left Selena by herself! 

She-

...

She looked so happy with the others.

There were finally others around her size and age for her to hang out with.

Selena will be fine for a little while without him.

She’ll be fine.

He’ll be seeing much less of her from now on, so...being away from her for a little while won’t kill him. She has a great family watching over her now, and he has one of his own. He knows that he can’t always be right there for Selena and she’ll have to get used to living without him. The Hopps residence is much safer than where he is right now.

He just hopes that she won’t hate him.

Or forget about him.

Barry feels a paw touch his side. The large, expressive eyes of his adoptive father are looking up at him with such worry. Every bullet that hits the helicopter makes him flinch. Would he be reacting this way if he didn’t have loved ones at risk? He probably isn’t scared for his own safety at all.

“You okay?” Finnick asks softly. His voice can barely be heard over the sound of gunfire.

Barry nods slowly, his ears ringing from the overwhelming noise.

“I can help!” the cub yells over the deafening ringing. Finnick’s expression loses its warmth and his fearful look comes back. Barry leans down and wraps his thick arms around his father, shocking the fennec into silence.

“Please, let me help,” the younger mammal pleads, his nose tickled by the fur of his father’s massive ear. Finnick squirms weakly, not wanting to accept such a request.

“Y-you could-!”

“They’re my family now, too,” Barry tells him. Finn’s words die in his throat as he processes the gravity of what his adoptive son is asking of him. He sees Nick and even Judy as close enough to be part of his actual family now.

To him, he’s finally part of a family who had his back. And he wants to have theirs.

He wants to belong.

And right now, his family is in danger and he knows he can help protect them. For Barry, this is more than just trying to live out one of the fantasies from a book he’s read. He’s not just trying to show off or go off on an adventure or anything like that.

This is about him finding a family he wants to be part of.

And he’ll do anything to keep it.

Finnick slowly stops struggling and wraps his small arms around what little of Barry he can fit around. He squeezes his boy with all of his might, trying not to let himself cry out of pride and fear for his future.

For the fennec, this is a situation he never thought he’d ever be in. A decision he’d never have to make is now staring him in the face and demanding an answer.

Having kits was never high on his priority list. But with Barry, he already can’t imagine going on without the lovable cub operating at his side. And maybe that’s the only true solution.

Is this what it feels for a father to fight alongside his son?

Because it scares him.

It scares him terribly.

But at the same time, he’s so god damned proud of his cub right now.

He wipes his face on the front of the cub’s padded gear and pulls away from the hug with a much more confident, determined look on his face.

“...’Aight. You stay right next to me, you hear? And when this is all over and we’re back home, you’re getting so damn grounded. Got it?” the fox asks sharply, his voice betraying the love he’s feeling for his cub.

Barry nods enthusiastically and picks his shield back up. He’s even able to pick up Finnick’s shield and hold one on each arm. Finn would definitely be able to lift one, but he would be completely useless while holding it. He’ll have to support his son another way.

“When should we go out?!” Gazelle calls out in the direction of the cockpit, where Chadwick is stationed. It’s his massive cargo helicopter, after all. Who else would be able to fly such a behemoth?

Finnick doesn’t even know where he got this thing.

Or where he’s been keeping it all this time.

What the hell did Chadwick do when he was younger?

“Not yet! Let fool cats waste bullets first!” the massive tiger’s voice bellows back, loud and clear enough for everyone to hear. The two other tigers finish setting up the metal structure in front of the door, which appears to be a protective blockade of some kind, large and thick enough to protect even mammals of their size and stature. 

They go back for one more object from the back of the helicopter.

Everyone’s eyes go wide as the two tigers help each other carry a massive gun over to the defensive wall and quickly snap it into place. It only takes a few minutes for them to assemble the gun, which doesn’t look like it’s been used in years. It’s covered in residue and dust from the time spent in storage, but appears in good enough shape to still work.

With another few trips to the supply locker, they have it set up with what must be thousands of rounds of ammunition. What has Chadwick been hiding from them?! Even Gazelle is balking at the death machine standing before them! Duke’s mouth is watering for some reason. It could possibly be the ease of assembly and ingenuity of the gun’s design.

Or he could just be fantasizing about how much he could have made from selling something like it. Either way, he’s the only one with eyes who isn’t looking at the mounted gun like it could spring to life and mow them down at any moment.

Marian doesn’t know what is going on around her, since Corduroy is too stunned to clue her in.

She jumps a bit as she feels something scurrying up her side and planting itself on her shoulder.

“Who’s that?” she asks out loud between the ringing of the gunshots still hitting the helicopter.

“Just me,” she hears the voice of Duke say. She calms down and offers the helpful weasel a nervous smile, trying to hide the fear she’s feeling. Though she knows she has to fight to protect her son’s life, that doesn’t mean that she feels confident about going into what amounts to an active warzone without her vision.

“Hello, Duke! How have you been?” she asks casually in her sweetest mother voice. The weasel sounds like he’s carrying some heavy objects, at least for him.

“I’m good, Ma’am. Hey, I got you some replacement eyes for the occasion! Mind if I swap them out really quick?” he inquires, the two clacky orbs in his grip trying to pull him back down to the ground again. Marian frowns slightly and tilts her head at where she thinks he is.

“But...I like the ones you made me! Why do you want to change them?”

“Oh, I can put your good ones back after this! Don’t worry. These ones are just temporary!” he assures her quickly, not wanting to make her think that he’s forcing her into giving up the two glass balls that mean so much to her.

“So what is different about these ones? Are they for...fighting?” she asks in confusion.

“Uh...kinda? Just trust me, they’ll help us,” he chuckles nervously. The older vixen hums to herself for a few moments in thought before giving him a nod and trying to open her eyes wide to allow him better access to them.

The weasel slides the two glass balls out of her head with ease, ignoring the black residue clinging to them from being inside of her. He’ll give them a cleaning before putting them back, that’s for sure.

In their place, he inserts two brightly glowing red replacements.

Chadwick’s prototypes that he asked the weasel to make for him.

But Duke made these two first to find out how he could light them up. The final version is currently nestled snugly inside the massive tiger’s skull, casting its own hellish glow on whatever he might be looking at.

Duke takes a step back to examine the results.

Marian shivers and blinks a few times at how odd it still feels, having foreign objects slipped in and out of her eye sockets. If she was alive, it would probably hurt like hell.

Corduroy struggles to look up at his mate, the vest he’s strapped to offering him little in the way of movement. The bulk of the helmet he’s wearing only restricts his maneuverability even more.

One of the tigers happens to be walking by and turns to get a look at whatever is casting the red light up at him. For as robotic and emotionless he’s seemed so far, he is so spooked by the sight of the red-eyed fox demon that he swears and jumps back away from her.

He doesn’t say anything to acknowledge the break in his exterior mask and just rushes to continue setting everything up.

His friend gives him a strange look but only receives a head shake in response.

Not a word.

Gazelle walks up to the three, carrying her own shield against her. She flinches a bit when she sees Marian, but pushes through her nervous stutter and reaches down for her best friend.

“Come on, Duke. They are slowing down! It is almost time for us to go out!” she urges, shaking her arm a bit more to convince him to hurry up and climb on.

He looks up at her with a strange expression for a few seconds.

Her eyes cross at him, her face contorting in fear. She can tell that he appears to have a plan that directly contradicts with hers.

“Sorry, Gaz, I got my own thing I have to do,” he says to her, climbing down Marian with the two glass eyeballs of hers to store for later. He hopes against the odds that everyone here will still be around by the end of the day.

“Duke! You must come with me! You could get hurt if you go off on your own!” she insists, shaking her arm towards him even more urgently. The weasel just offers her a soft but sad smile, knowing exactly what she’s feeling. He knows what it’s like to think that a friend is going off on their own, leaving him behind.

“I got this, Gazzy. Trust me, alright? I’ll be careful, I promise!” he chirps up to her, trying not to let her pleading expression break his resolve. He knows he’ll be useless if he just hides on her shoulder the whole time. If he wanted to play the role of a piece of clothing, he would have just let the undead take him weeks ago.

No, he wants to prove to the world that even though he’s a small little weasel, condemned by society, he can still make a difference. He can do some good for mammals who aren’t him.

She looks down at him like she just wants to pick him up and hide him away against his will. Her eyes water over as if she’s already figuring out how she’s going to say goodbye to him when he inevitably gets killed. But she knows that at this point, she can’t just go against his decision. He’s proven himself as a capable weasel who knows how to take care of himself. Nick is his friend, too. And from what she’s seen, Duke has a great deal of respect for Marian. There’s no way he’s going to let her go into this mess without some backup.

And he has an advantage that no other mammal around him possesses:

He’s small.

He’s fast.

He’s squirmy.

And he’s damn near invisible to the eye when he wants to be.

For him, that’s all he’s going to need to carry out his game plan once those doors open. Well, that and his experience taking things apart and making off with them right under the noses of the mammals who they belong to.

His body trembles with an overload of adrenaline as he prepares himself mentally for what he’s going to be doing. If everything goes according to plan, it shouldn’t take more than five minutes to finish. After that, he can assist any other way he can until the situation is snuffed out completely.

But he’ll be away from Gazelle for pretty much the entire time.

For her sake and his own, he’ll try his best to make it out alive.

The forlorn pop star shuffles over to the back door, which she knows will be opened in only moments. Behind her, Chadwick finally lumbers through the door to the cockpit just as he’s replacing his pilot helmet with his combat one.

“Hey!” Finnick calls up to him from his spot next to his son, standing behind the double shields. Chad blinks, his one fiercely glowing red eye peering down at the small fox questioningly.

“Where did you get all this stuff?!” Finnick yells, though he probably doesn’t need to. The gunfire is only from semi-automatic arms at this point as is much less deafening. The massive tiger just smiles deviously at the fennec and lets out a hearty, booming laugh.

“You think Chadwick was dancer for whole life? HA! Chadwick was great fighter! Glorious soldier with great companions to watch Chadwick’s back!” he says, gesturing to the other two tigers, who return his acknowledgement with nods. They’re done setting up the equipment at this point and are holding at the ready, already focused on what they’ll do once Chadwick gives the order to move. They look like they’re ready to mount the gun, but Chadwick moves forward and instead pushes them towards the rescue team.

They look at him in confusion.

“You help them! Chadwick will fire gun! Now, go! Help keep survivors safe! Chadwick will cover you all! Use shields to form wall as you move! Small fox, you use bat to fight madcats who get close! Do you all understand Chadwick?!” he bellows.

Everyone is standing at attention from the sheer authority in his voice, giving them a clear purpose in the coming minutes. The tiger turns his attention down to Duke, who is eagerly waiting by the door to bolt out the moment it opens.

“Weasel! Are you ready?” he calls down. Duke offers him two thumbs up, drawing a wide, excited smile from Chadwick, who seems to know exactly what’s going on in his head.

“HAHAA! Very good!” he giggles enthusiastically. Gazelle looks between the two, feeling left out of whatever nonverbal signals her two closest friends are passing between each other.

Marian stands off to the side with Corduroy strapped securely to her chest. Finnick offers her one of his ears to guide her along by, which she graciously accepts. She joins Finnick and Barry at their places behind Gazelle and the two other tigers.

Everyone holds their shields at the ready.

Chadwick’s comrades stand on either side of the back doors, ready to pull them open as soon as their leader gives the green light.

Chadwick himself gets comfy around the mounted gun, the same one he used back when he was just a young cat fighting for his country. This whole helicopter is the same one he flew countless missions on, through hell and back again.

It’s his baby.

And he trusts it with his life.

He’s just happy that it gets to see the light of day again, and for such a great cause! Him, his comrades and his baby, flying great distances to save lives again. He’s giddy as a cub to be reliving this part of his life once more.

“Get ready!” he calls out, his voice full of joy and barely-contained bloodthirst. The others shiver at just how happy the big cat is to get the chance to show his toys off one more time.

Everybody around the back door tenses up and waits in silence for the go-ahead.

Chadwick waits for there to be a gap in the firing, hopefully signaling that the madcats are reloading or changing position.

“GO!” he bellows.

Instantly, the other two tigers slide the back doors open. Duke is the first to exit, his small armor-covered body disappearing before anyone has a chance to see where he’s going. Gazelle lets out a tiny whimper as she sees her friend for what might be the last time.

The tigers take their own shields and exit first, followed immediately by Gazelle. Then Finnick moves with his son, the cub’s shields covering Marian and Corduroy as well. As soon as Chadwick is alone in the helicopter, he reaches forward and yanks his own doors open, exposing himself and his gun to the aggressors outside.

A delightful chorus of screams ring out at the madcats get a clear view of the hulking tiger aiming right at them, his glowing red eye striking fear into multiple hearts. To some of the more religious felines, the devil himself just showed up with his tool meant for sending them back to his abode.

Chadwick, almost letting out another laugh, takes a deep breath and lets out the loudest, most terrifying roar he’s ever managed. Every set of eyes is on him now, drawing attention away from the rescue team which moves silently along the side of the forest towards the bus full of survivors.

One of the cats feels brave enough to take a shot at him. 

Chadwick giggles as a tiny sliver of metal imbeds itself harmlessly in his armor, not getting any deeper than the kevlar.

“WHO SEND ALL THESE KITTENS TO FIGHT?!” he laughs maniacally as his paw cranks the bolt back on his gun.

His finger finds the trigger and unleashes its chaos.

And for the first time in years, Chadwick is right back home again.

He’s loving every second of it.


	51. Halt

This is AMAZING!

He’s never felt this good before in his life!

Every muscle in Tyler’s body is overflowing with raw, primal energy and he’s never been as strong as he is now. His speed and reflexes are high above the capabilities of a living mammal, which is proven by his easily he’s able to jump around and dodge the bullets fired at him by the panicking madcats.

They shoot.

He scoots.

They punch.

But they lunch.

The taste of biting into the fresh, warm meat of a living body is indescribable. Their blood is like the finest broth. The flesh like the tastiest burga he could possibly imagine. His entire brain is sparking with electricity, each bolt striking him with justification for his actions.

He’s a predator.

He’s a zombie.

Eating meat is just so natural!

It tastes good, feels good and he’s even saving innocent lives by doing so! These cats had plenty of time to back off and remove themselves from their current situation, yet they chose to keep up the hunt. It’s not his fault their prey became their predator!

These monsters have taken innocent lives.

His included.

There’s no logical reason he shouldn’t be stoked that he finally has the upper hand and two other guns on his side.

The coyote’s eyes lock with the lynx trembling under him, his jaws dripping with the blood of his previous victim. The cat has glasses bent around his face, the reflection given off showing Tyler his own glowing red eyes and manic, beastly expression.

His face falls as he looks in the reflection.

Who is that?

It can’t be him.

He’s...he’s not a monster.

They’re the monsters! They’ve been hunting down innocent survivors and killing them just to steal their belongings!

But he’s the one with another mammal’s blood dripping from his jaws as a terrified feline trembles under his fiery glare.

The taste on his tongue turns sour the more he thinks about the multiple lives he’s taken in the last few minutes. They might have been horrible mammals with long lists of deplorable acts committed against their fellow mammals.

But he had chased them down, lept on them and tore their throats out as they screamed for mercy. He consumed parts of them before they even managed to pass away. Are they even dead yet? Did he just leave them bleeding out and in horrible pain?

This thing he’s turned into...it isn’t him.

He doesn’t want to be a monster. He just wants to protect Skye and the others. Does that mean he should become just as monstrous as the madcats?

His brain screams yes.

It sends tingles of pleasure flowing through him that try to convince him that he’s behaving appropriately. It wants him to go back to his killing spree and eat as much meat as he can. Bite them all! Turn them all!

Those aren’t his thoughts!

He’s not like this!

The lynx continues to look up at him, unsure of what the undead coyote is waiting for. Every second that passes is another second spent in agonizing anticipation of his death. If he’s going to die, he wants it to just happen already!

Waiting for death is absolutely torture.

As Tyler tries harder and harder to suppress the urge to dig into the cowering meal splayed out before him, he notices that the two red dots reflected off the lynx’s glasses fade away until he’s just looking back at his normal face.

As soon as the red fades entirely, it’s like a switch is flipped inside of him. All the manic energy inside of him dims and reality seems to fall right back down into his shoulders. While he was having a merry old time chowing down on some unlucky cats, the others were firing upon the helicopter that had landed.

Tyler looks around and sees most of the cats focusing on a massive undead tiger as he rains total hell down from his place inside the door to the helicopter. A massive mounted gun fires endlessly into the vans that the cats have been using as cover, the only sound audible over the gunshots being the tiger’s disturbingly gleeful laughing.

Off to the side, near the trees, the coyote spots a line of shields moving stealthily towards the busses. Are they trying to get to the survivors?! They’re going to kill Skye!

Just as he’s about to spring into action, though, he spots one of the shields bumping into a tree and being dropped. The familiar form of an aging undead vixen appears from behind the massive plate of armor, her body still recognizable even under the gear she’s wearing.

The helmeted head strapped to her chest only confirms her identity to him.

He remembers watching her hug her son, her mismatched eyes staring off to either side of him. Tyler had gotten a chuckle out of it at the time, but now her eyes are glowing a foreboding red color. She still seems to be in control of herself, though…

If Nick’s mother is with that group, then they must be the ones from the helicopter. Is this the plan that Skye promised him would work? If so, then he needs to keep the attention off of them at all costs so they can do what they need to.

The universe is quick to test him.

Just as he’s processing who the shields belong to, one of his previous victims wakes up and scrambles towards the bus, which is right where his backup is headed. He can still see Skye looking at him through the window of the bus, though her gaze flicks to the newly turned feline. She looks like she’s about to whip her gun back out to put the cat out of her misery herself, but Tyler beats her to it.

The coyote intercepts the larger, more vicious mammal and grapples him away from the bus full of fresh meat. His efforts are rewarded with a furious hiss and the feeling of multiple claws piercing his flesh. Luckily, he doesn’t feel that much pain and is able to muscle the cat away from the bus and towards the helicopter.

Over and over, he’s clawed at and bitten. He pushes back as much as he can, but his body is already weaker than the feline’s. The strength he had been fighting with while under the direct influence of the infection is mostly gone now, but the cat’s isn’t. The snarling mammal is still fueled by the full effects of the infection tingling his brain, and he only seems to get stronger with every subsequent blow he manages to land on the struggling coyote.

Tyler manages to grab hold of the cat’s maw just as it threatens to close over his face. With the jaw strength he’s felt so far, the feline could very possibly bite his head in half.

A pained grunt of effort leaves his throat as he holds the jaws back away from him. But with his strength failing against the bigger mammal, the deadly teeth start slowly creeping closer to him. He can see into the cat’s mouth, the smell of dying flesh already creeping out like a gaseous fume.

Just as the cat tries to clamp his jaws around Tyler’s face, a series of loud sounds whistle by his ears. The undead cat’s head suddenly bursts like a balloon and slumps backwards, letting Tyler finally free of its grip.

The young canine turns his head and his eyes meet the one remaining eye of a very familiar tiger. Now that he’s closer to the helicopter, Tyler can see that the one firing the gun is the same tiger who led the charge against his team during the failed raid only a couple days earlier. He’s the same one from the meeting.

He’s the tiger whose eye he shot out.

And whose friends he managed to kill.

Tyler swallows as the tiger visibly recognizes him as well. The glowing red eye casts an evil glow out that burns into the coyote’s very soul.

The gun turns slightly so that it’s aiming directly at him. Tyler’s ears tilt back against his head but he doesn’t break eye contact. The tiger is testing him in a nonverbal way and the young coyote can’t look away.

The tiger snarls directly at him.

He knows exactly who Tyler is and what he’s taken from him.

His finger teases the trigger of his gun, so close to squeezing but holding back just enough.

The coyote offers him a sorrowful expression; one that conveys how deeply his actions have hurt him inside.

And they truly have.

Ever since he found out the truth about the undead tigers that attacked them, he’s blamed nobody but himself for the misunderstanding. He killed two mammals just trying to protect their friends for no other reason than it being the obvious thing to do.

And now he’s in the same exact situation. He’s the undead one trying to defend a loved one with a gun pointed at his head.

So this is what it feels like…

Tyler drops his arms and turns towards the tiger. If this is what has to happen for him to make up for his misdeeds, then...he’ll accept it. The tiger can have his revenge if he wants it that badly. He just hopes that he’ll save Skye and the other survivors in his place.

The area is disturbingly quiet as the giant feline examines the much younger coyote over with his single eye. Now that his helmet is off, Chadwick can see just how young the killer of his comrades actually is. He was probably still in high school when the infection hit.

He looks like he has little experience, yet…

His aim is already impeccable. To be able to shoot three different attacking tigers at point blank range through the eyes is an almost impossible feat. Chadwick is just lucky that he turned his head at the last moment, or he would have been the third body that day.

Chadwick looks to the bus, where the familiar face of an especially ignorant vixen is peeking out at the coyote, her expression one of fear.

She’s scared that she’s going to watch her soldier...no...friend die. And from the blood-soaked appearance of the younger mammal, she’s probably already seen him die once very recently.

He’s one of the undead now.

Chadwick lets out a massive steaming huff. A piece of him wants to just take the shot so he can feel like he’s avenged his comrades. But the louder, dominant part of him knows that they wouldn’t approve of taking the life of a mammal who has just been trying to help.

The coyote obviously didn’t know the truth to the situation he was being led into. He was protecting his friends the same way Chadwick and his team were protecting theirs.

He saw the canine pull the freshly turned cat away from the bus just before he blew his brains out, so the tyke must already be back into his normal mindset.

He fought the infection off startlingly quickly, and Chadwick suspects it was because of his desire to save lives instead of take them.

From what he’s seen so far, the pup is a good one, just inexperienced. And the look on his face tells Chadwick all he needs to know.

The pup is sorry.

He is accepting Chadwick’s judgement, even if he has to die for good to make up for what he’s done.

He is willing to enter the black void again just to make the tiger feel like he’s been repaid.

Chadwick squeezes the trigger back and another few pieces of hot metal zip out of the barrel of his gun and fly towards the coyote.

Tyler flinches at the sound, but his eyes open when he realizes that he’s not on the ground without a brain. Just behind him, another one of his earlier victims flops to the ground, having bolted for the meat inside the bus.

Chadwick made quick work of the zombie cat.

The coyote looks back to the tiger and sees the larger mammal offer him a flick of the head, his way of telling him to get back to work. Tyler grins and does just that, reaching down to the first cat’s body to take his gun and remaining ammunition.

Once armed, Tyler uses the resumed sound of deafening gunfire to move around the mess of vans, taking shots at the madcats as he goes.

The cat he had nearly scared the piss out of is still laying on the ground, trembling but unharmed. He hasn’t made any effort to get back up and rejoin the fight.

Tyler likes this.

He wonders if he can do this with more of the cats instead of just slaughtering them mercilessly. They might deserve it, but what if one of them is one of the last of his species? He would be possibly snuffing out any hopes for the continuation of his kind.

So Tyler does something different.

Instead of shooting to kill, he shoots to disarm. Like the tiger squad had done when facing off against him and his team. They spared their lives when they didn’t even have to. The only reason all of his friends are still alive is because the tigers decided they didn’t want to be monsters. They showed mercy even when Tyler didn’t deserve it at the time.

He wants to be like them.

They’re the kind of undead he should strive to become. Powerful and deadly but still capable of mercy.

He spots a paw sticking up over the hood of one of the vans to pop off a few more shots towards the helicopter. The gun he picked up, while ineffective in the paws of a larger cat, is perfectly sized for him and he makes great use of it.

A shot rings out from behind the cats and the gun in the paws of the shooter is struck, forcing the swearing cat to drop the weapon onto the hood of the van.

A few pairs of slitted pupils turn to where Tyler was, but he’s already gone. The appearance of a much closer, stealthy threat sends them scrambling for different cover. They had to squat as they duck under the continuous hail of hot metal soaring above their heads.

One tries to sneak around the other side, only to get pushed back as more bullets pepper the ground at his paws.

They almost forgot about the other gun!

The fox from earlier is firing again, now that he can see them. This results in more cursing and panicking as they try to work out where they can possibly go without getting riddled with holes.

It’s looking more and more like they will have to either die or surrender to get out of this situation. Where is their leader? They’ve been without a voice telling them what to do!

The revving of an engine behind them is their only answer. One of the vans that has sustained only minor damage roars to life and lurches forward, knocking a couple of the cats to the ground as it does so.

The van sends bits of dirt and grass flying as it tries to gain traction. Once it does, it speeds up at an alarming rate straight towards Tyler, who sees it coming when it’s already on top of him.  
Right past the windshield, the coyote sees the same sneering face of the lion who had shot him...and ultimately caused his death.

Tyler jumps to the side just in time to avoid getting pasted all over the front of the van. It speeds by him, but to his horror, doesn’t swerve around to try again.

Instead, it picks up speed and keeps driving in a straight line over the grass…

Right towards the bus.

Right towards Skye. And Nick. And Judy. And all the other survivors who have already been through so much in the last day.

He’s going to ram the bus! Even though the bus is much bigger, it’s still just a school bus and isn’t made out of the most durable metal in the world.

Skye sees the insane lion speeding right towards her and instinctively drops the window. Her rifle sticks out of it and joins the chorus of gunfire going on all around the field, her war cry almost lost under all of the noise.

The bullets punch holes in the windshield but none of them seem to be hitting the lion. The desperate vixen realizes that the van wouldn’t stop even if she blew his brains out, and a collision is inevitable.

She pulls her gun back in and starts barking orders to the rest of the survivors.

“OFF! OFF THE BUS! RIGHT NOW!” she commands over the sound of the mounted gun spitting metal, her tone of voice sending chills down the spines of every other mammal on the bus. Even Judy feels suddenly more willing to follow the vixen’s lead. The bus becomes a flurry of motion as everyone moves into the aisle between the seats to escape. Skye opens the door without really looking at what is outside waiting for her.

The sudden appearance of heavily-armored tigers and a few other undead mammals startles her for a brief moment before she realizes just who they all are. Some of Nick’s family and friends are outside to help! And even Gazelle is here! Although she looks worried about something, constantly turning her head towards the chaos going on around the bus and scanning the fields for an unknown entity.

“Hurry! Follow us!” Gazelle urges as the two tigers move around the bus to make sure no cats have hidden themselves away in order to jump out.

The sound of the van speeding towards them prompts Skye to urge everyone off of the bus even faster. She doesn’t want anybody around when that thing crashes!

Judy frets over Nick, who is completely zoned out of the situation, his focus consumed by the deafening rattle of the gun in his grip. Hot shells fly out and sprinkle the inside of the bus like rain. The fox doesn’t even notice when a few of the scalding metal casing land on his and burn through his fur. The desperate bunny tries to pull him away, but he’s lost in his own world. The sound of the van is getting louder and louder.

Judy shrieks when she sees that the lion is directing the van straight towards where the one spraying his vehicle with lead is standing.

He’s going to ram Nick!

“NICK! NICK STOP! WE HAVE TO LEAVE!” she cries out, almost successfully tugging him away from the gun. The brief moment of clarity lets him turn his head to face her, and she sees for the first time that he has tears of mental agony running down his face.

His eyes stare right through her like she’s not even there.

It’s like he’s confused why he felt something touching him.

The fox turns back to his gun and resumes firing at the quickly approaching van. Judy growls in the way that only a bunny can and wraps her paws around his waist, channeling some of her undead strength to finally tug the fox away from his death.

He yelps out loud and scrambles to continue firing, but Judy has a secure hold of him.

The van’s about to hit!

She doesn’t have time to get him out!

The bunny shoves the fox down to the ground as far away from the impact zone as she can. Before he can pull himself to his paws, she dives on him and holds him down. She’s thankful for the first time in awhile that she’s undead. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to keep the panicking fox subdued.

She hugs Nick tightly to her body, hoping that her smaller form might still be able to absorb some of the damage.

His life and her unlife are in the paws of fate now.

The van’s engine is almost as deafening as the mounted gun as it soars straight at the bus.

But before the lion can succeed in his mission, another voice rings out into the open air, disturbing the ears of everyone who is able to hear it.

“BARRY!”

Chadwick stops firing his gun as the scene plays out before him, the bright midday sun illuminating the stage brilliantly.

The other madcats turn as a white, fluffy body covered in armor and pillows bolts out impossibly fast to intercept their leader’s suicide mission. There’s another mammal zipping after the cub, but is not as fast.

“NO! GET AWAY! GET OUT!” the deep voice of the armored fennec fox screams out in desperation.

Tyler stands in awe as the polar bear cub skids to a halt right in front of the van, only a second before it would have made contact with the bus.

The sight of the van about to destroy his son only pushes Finnick to run faster.

But it was never going to be fast enough.

Barry sees the snarling grin of the lion leader behind the windshield for a split second before it disappears and his vision is filled with the grill of the van. He closes his eyes and swallows down a curse at his own daring stupidity.

But he has to at least try.

Nick and Judy might die otherwise!

The cub spreads his arms out wide and extends his claws out.

The sounds of bending steel and shattering glass fill the air.

A few different voices scream out in horror at the sight of Barry disappearing into the front of the van as it collides with him. Finnick loses his balance as he sees his son getting killed all over again and rolls through the dirt until he comes to a halt, his body resting in a limp heap.

He no longer has the will to move.

It’s only been a few days and he’s already lost his son. The poor cub has died three different times...and now this one is looking to be the final nail in his undersized coffin, just like he had been fearing.

How will he live after this?

How will he tell Bianca…?

How will he tell Selena?!

Every bad thing the fennec has ever done is catching up with him and making sure to kick him while he’s down in the dirt. Does cosmic karma exist? Because it does, it’s reaping every possible torture on him and his family.

The area around him is surprisingly quiet.

Why isn’t anybody else screaming?

Finnick glances up from the dirt, his eyes falling onto a scene straight out of a superhero movie. He can’t move, breathe or speak as he takes in just what has happened. A few paws walking closer to the scene make up the only noises in the entire field, save for some chirping birds.

Chadwick stares with his jaw slacked open, having to blink repeatedly to make sure his remaining eye isn’t just seeing things.

Gazelle and her tiger squad sneak around the bus just to get a glimpse of what is keeping everyone so quiet. When they see it, they are justifiably stunned into silence. The survivors even move around behind their saviors and join the crowd of amazed onlookers.

Tyler drops his gun on accident as he tries to accept what he’s seeing is real.

Judy peeks up from the window and lets out a silent gasp.

Even the remaining madcats forget what’s going on around them, standing up and moving a bit closer to see what has become of their leader. They don’t care that they’re right in the line of Chadwick’s gun; they have to get a better look at this.

The only sound anyone can hear is the heaving gasps of the injured lion as he hangs halfway out of the shattered windshield, his gaze focused straight down at the cub.

Barry is frozen in place, not believing that he’s actually lifting an entire van over his head.

A few more shards of glass fall to the dirt under him, which was just recently disturbed by two white paws sliding backwards and digging massive gashes in the ground.

The cub stares up at the lion looking down at him in horror, the large feline unable to process that his entire vehicle was stopped and lifted by just a single young polar bear. The purple glow coming from the cub’s eyes only disturbs him more.

It’s like time has stopped for everyone in the field for a moment.

Nobody makes a move to progress the situation.

The wind flows through the trees and disturbs the leaves.

Off in the distance, the sounds of the highway are just barely audible.

A few birds chirp out their songs, completely oblivious to the drama taking place under their homes. They’re just happy that the constant noise has stopped so they can get back to doing their bird things.

Barry shifts his footing a little to support the weight of the object he can’t possibly be holding like he is, and the lion snaps back into his right mind. His arm scrambles to his hip and yanks something out of the waist of his pants.

The moment that the cub sees the familiar form of a revolver moving to aim at him, he lets out a surprised yell and stumbles to the side. Without the holes in the ground helping him stay upright, he falls backwards and pushes the van up and over his head.

The lion lets out a terrified roar as the ground suddenly rushes to meet the roof of his van. He can’t do a thing to stop the impact and is trapped inside as the vehicle slams into the grass with a sickening crunch of snapping metal.

Barry stumbles back into the dirt and tries to catch his breath.

His father scurries up to him just as the cub lets out a burp of purple smoke. Barry suddenly realizes that he scared Finn badly with this most recent stunt, and could very well have killed himself in the dumbest of ways.

But he had to try!

And it paid off! Nick and Judy are safe now!

But that might not be enough to rescue him from the wrath that Finnick is surely going to rain down onto his head. A bolt of fear shoots through him, his father’s incoming fury sending countless painful scenarios running through his mind.

What method of punishment will it be this time?

The small fox finally reaches him and Barry’s vision fills with the massive eyes of the overwhelmed fennec.

“BARRY!” his father bellows. The cub flinches and tries to partially roll away from what he suspects might be the bat.

“I’M SORRY! I DIDN’T MEAN TO SCA-!”

Barry never gets to finish his apology.

His father wrapping his arms around his face and hugging the hell out of it stops him from saying anything else. The fennec is strangely not yelling at him like he thought he would be.

Instead, he seems...to be cheering about something.

“DID YOU SEE THAT?! MY BOY JUST SUPLEXED A VAN! MY BOY SUPLEXED A VAN!” Finnick barks out in joyous laughter, his sudden gleeful pride removing any fear Barry still feels about what his father would be capable of doing to him.

Barry sits up with his dad still bouncing excitedly around on his head, making sure everyone within a mile radius knows what his son just did.

The cub offers a glance up at the fennec.

“Does...this mean I’m not in trouble?” he asks timidly.

Finnick’s laughter just doubles at this question.

Barry nods his head and lowers his gaze to the dirt.

“Yeah...yeah, that’s fair…”


	52. Coming Together

“Nick! Nick, did you see that?! Barry just tossed an entire van over his head! With the lion inside of it!” Judy shouts into the unresponsive fox’s face. The sheer absurdity of what she’s telling him actually snaps him out of his post-manic trance and he turns to look at her. She’s still up on one of the seats, her nose twitching wildly against the glass window.

The bus is empty except for the two of them. Everybody else had already exited the bus to escape, and are now crowding around the vehicle as they process what they just saw.

Judy can’t believe her eyes.

Just days ago, that cub was lifeless on an operating table. Part of his head was missing. He should have died from that injury, yet here he is lifting entire armored utility vehicles like they’re styrofoam. What’s going on inside that little body of his? She saw the purple glow and smoke again. Does the nighthowler dose they gave him still have something to do with this?

Nick manages to slowly pull himself up into the seat next to her, his body still trembling terribly. He catches her attention when she notices the bloody paw prints he leaves on the seats as he climbs, the vibration from the gun’s grip having worn away parts of his paw pads.

Judy eyes these spots hungrily but forces herself to focus on her fox, who isn’t in a good place mentally right now. She can tell that he’s shook. The way he was almost foaming at the mouth while firing the gun frightened her.

The fear that she might have lost her fox hasn’t left yet.

He just took lives.

It was in the defense of many innocents, but each death caused by his own paw only dragged him further down the pit of insanity.

It doesn’t help that he’s barely had a moment to rest and process everything that’s happened to him over the last month.

It hasn’t been that long since the infection began, but after all the wildly fluctuating emotions he’s felt, he can’t say that he feels like the same fox anymore.

It would have been so much easier if he had just let Judy in when she asked.

He could have been living peacefully with her the whole time in the city where he’s spent his entire life. Because he chose the harder option, he’s now days away from the comfort of his home and probably won’t be back for a good while. He’s been under constant stress from fearing for his life with no end in sight.

And he just took the lives of multiple other mammals.

He should regret his decisions.

He should hate the fact that Judy didn’t just turn him.

Hell, having Bellwether’s grunts throw him off of the roof would have been an easier experience.

But…

If he hadn’t kept living, so many good things around him wouldn’t have happened.

When he took his family with him to Gazelle’s mansion, he inadvertently linked many mammals together who wouldn’t otherwise have met.

Gazelle might not have met Duke.

Barry wouldn’t have met his new adoptive parents.

Selena wouldn’t be staying with the Hopps family so she can stay closer to her brother.

Gwen wouldn’t have met...that rabbit buck who she was obviously smitten with. What was his name again? It’s at the tip of his tongue…

And that’s not to mention how much Judy has helped the survivors as well. Her tenacity and resilience has helped save more lives than she’ll probably ever admit to.

So…

All in all…

His continued survival has left an undeniably positive impact on the world around him, even if those positive impacts didn’t involve him all that much.

He’s not a savior.

He’s just a fox.

But somehow, just being a connecting factor for those around him has helped so many. It’s nothing he can personally feel proud of or take credit for.

Yet...it helps make all the bad stuff seem more worth it in the end.

Nick takes a deep breath as he surveys the damaged ground surrounding the side of the bus he’s looking out of. There’s two gashes in the earth from where Barry’s legs had dug in, connected to a few patches of torn grass from when he was stumbling sideways.

The cub himself is still being held by his adoptive father, while some curious others are venturing closer to see how their hero is doing.

Just a few body lengths away from them rests the destroyed van, it’s entire top section crumpled under the weight of the vehicle.

Geez...Barry really did suplex the van.

How in the hell…?

Judy nudges him slightly to get his attention. He startles a bit at the contact but manages to look down to what she’s pointing at.

It’s her phone.

“Phone…” he mumbles. She starts to roll her eyes until she sees that he’s not smirking or doing any of the other things he normally does when he’s messing with her. Her eyes slant in worry for her fox, not being sure how far he’s fallen inside of himself. Grief management is a class she hasn’t gotten the chance to take yet…

She gently points to the video playing on the screen to direct his gaze to it.

His eyes struggle to work together to see what it is she’s showing him. The screen slowly becomes clearer as he manages to focus on it.

It’s a video she just took.

His eyes widen at the slightly jittery recording of Barry showing off just how strong he’s become.

And damn, there it is. The cub just ate the impact like it was nothing more than a harsh shove backwards. Without the ground shredding under his paws, it would be easy to claim that there wasn’t any force behind the hit. Well, the way the front of the van crunches as it hits the cub’s body is also irrefutable proof.

That was a big impact.

That van would have mulched pretty much anybody else here at the moment, save for maybe the undead tigers. Nick remembers one of them shrugging off being hit by a small car, but would a van have phased him more?

And withstanding a hit from a vehicle is an entirely different deal than lifting one up over your head. Nick feels like he’s watching a movie.

And Barry is the hero.

It makes sense, in a way.

The most selflessly heroic one of them all manages to pull off this kind of stunt.

Nick is lifted from his funk enough to feel a sense of pride swirling in his chest. Barry really is something else.

Judy notices the small smile tugging at his lips, one of her own rushing to match him. It’s just so otherworldly of a sight to see that it actually manages to brighten him, even if only slightly.

“Nick! Nicky, are you in here?!” comes the urgent voice of Marian from the stairs of the bus. Nick jumps at the sudden loud noise and pushes his head into Judy’s side to hide away, a tiny but heartbreaking whine escaping his throat. The bunny freezes and wraps her arms around him instinctively.

“Nick? Are you…” his mother’s voice calls out again, but is cut off by the sound of fierce sniffing. “That smells like...Nicky’s blood…”

Judy looks up at Marian as she stumbles up the stairs in a hurry to get to the source of the terrible smell. Weeks ago, it might have made her lose her mind and attack him to draw more. But now, the smell of blood coming from her son only summons the mother in her. The infection is all but ignored in her mind.

“We’re over here!” Judy calls, just loud enough to get the frantic vixen’s attention without scaring Nick and further. Mrs. Wilde manages to work her way through the center aisle of the bus to get to where her son and his mate are sitting.

She follows the scent of the blood and finds some of it staining the seat where his paw had been.

“Why is he bleeding?” she asks right away. Corduroy is strapped to her chest, but the helmet surrounding him keeps Judy from seeing what expression he’s wearing.

“He was holding the gun so tightly for so long that the vibrations wore away his pads, I think. It’s just his paws, though, don’t worry. He didn’t get shot or anything,” Judy assures them quickly. Marian goes to say something but is interrupted by Corduroy.

“Then what happened to his ear…?” the tod’s voice asks carefully. Before Judy can answer, the vixen’s paws shoot to her son. She feels around to find where his head is and then moves her way up. She stops when she feels the tattered nub and stitching where the rest of his one ear used to be.

Marian turns to the rabbit and sniffs her, her glowing red eyes widening as she takes in the scent of her son around Judy’s mouth.

“You...bit him?” Marian demands, her voice soft but dangerous. Judy struggles to explain what actually happened, but the intimidating look of the fierce vixen is causing her to stutter.

“The lion shot it off.”

The three look to Nick, who is still pressing his head into his bunny’s side for comfort.

“Then why does she-?”

“I let her keep the tip,” he explains clearly, even though he’s not looking at his mother or her mate. He’s content to just hide in the familiar darkness that is Judy’s warm, fluffy body.

Huh...she’s warm again.

That’s weird.

She has to stop being dead alive.

Just pick one. Geez.

Marian turns her muzzle back to Judy.

“...Pretty much what he said,” the bunny agrees hurriedly. The vixen takes a few more sniffs before finally calming down the rest of the way and relaxing her body.

“Nicky…” her voice turns from accusatory anger to anxious relief in a heartbeat. She’s quick to join the cuddle session going on, wrapping herself around both her son and his bunny.

Corduroy squirms a bit but is otherwise unharmed as he’s squished between multiple bodies. He’s just happy to be included in the hug. It makes him feel more like this is his actual family now and he’s not just an outsider intruding in on the moment. He desperately misses that feeling of unity that being a part of a team brings him.

“I killed them, mom…” Nick says with a shuddering breath. Marian squeezes her son even tighter, understanding now why he’s acting so out of sorts.

“No, you didn’t,” Corduroy says firmly, his voice making Nick flinch slightly. 

“Yes, I did!” Nick says with more fire in his tone than before. “Or was that someone else who was aiming my gun and pulling the trigger? Because the last time I checked, these are my paws! And they’re covered in blood!” Nick punctuates this by holding his raw, bleeding paw pads out for the other tod to see. Corduroy doesn’t even glance at them and remains firm with his point.

“You didn’t kill them. They killed themselves when they chose to do what they did. They put you into a situation where you had to fight back with lethal force even though you didn’t want to. You’re not a murderer, Nick. You’re just a fox who acted to save his own life along with the lives of those around you. Do you understand me?” Corduroy finishes, having the rapt attention of everyone around him. Marian leans down and bumps her chin into the top of his helmet, hoping that he feels it.

Nick swallows dryly, unsure of what he’s supposed to think now.

He still hates what he’s done, but doesn’t know if that’s the proper response or not.

...His paws hurt.

He looks down at his pads as they continue to drip warm blood down his wrist and into the fur of his arm.

The faces of the cats he killed will haunt him forever. But maybe a few snarling faces are an acceptable loss against the many more survivors who would have been killed in their stead.

He had to do it…

He had to…

It’s over now…

The rest of the cats are standing around awkwardly, not knowing what to do now that their leader is dead. One of them is just laying in the field, staring up at the sky like he’s gazing at the clouds.

Hold on…

The main crowd of them is looking over at something. Nick follows their sight line over to the van, where a sand-colored body covered in blood is worming its way out of the destroyed vehicle with a gun still held tightly in his grip.

In a snap, the fox’s focus is back. The pain from his paws vanishes. The entire world around him melts away so that it’s just him and the bastard who shot him and killed Wilson. 

A threatening growl leaves his throat, surprising the mammals still hugging him. They try to open their mouths to ask him what’s wrong, but he shoves his way out of the seat and bolts out of the open emergency exit before they realize that he’s moving.

“Nick! What are you-?!” is all he can hear Judy screaming before he’s out of the bus and charging towards the only animal he’s ever had the desire to disembowel. The lion’s relentless pursuit of him and the other survivors has led to nothing but pain and death for everyone around him.

Why did they decide to start attacking strangers?

Did they just want their stuff?

Their evil actions don’t make any sense to Nick, but neither does anything else at the moment. His head is clouded with too many hate-fueled, violent thoughts.

They could have just stopped the chase when most of their vans got pushed off the road!

This didn’t have to go down this way!

But if it didn’t, this whole group would still be out there, probably terrorizing a much less armed, prepared group.

No…

This needed to happen.

For Nick, his first step towards making the world a better place is the feeling of his jaws forcing his teeth through the lion’s skin.

He tastes blood and it doesn’t do anything for him.

He doesn’t see the hype.

A deafening roar of pain breaks through the relative peace that had settled upon the field. Every eye is now on the leader of the madcats as he flails around, trying to pry the fox off of his back. Nick dodges each swipe of claws, only tightening his grip on the cat’s scruff with every passing moment.

He can feel his teeth meeting each other through the fold of skin in his mouth. The taste of the unwashed feline’s grime and filth revolts the fox to his core, but he doesn’t dare let go. Every muscle in his body is screaming for relief, but he knows that if the lion manages to peel him off, he’ll be killed in moments.

A few shouts of surprise and warning ring out around him but Nick can’t tell what is being said or who is saying it. The voices are familiar though. His vision is taken up by the lion’s fur, tinted red by both fury and blood.

The lion screams something incomprehensible in the direction of his remaining madcats. The sounds of shouting only grow louder as the other attackers hesitantly approach the scene.

The image of their fearless leader beaten, bloody and screaming for help must be shaking their confidence in his leadership.

But still, they follow his orders and close in on the two struggling mammals.

While Nick is trying to see who is getting closer, he misses the opportunity to dodge one of the lion’s swings. A stray claw snags on the fox’s skin and digs into it, causing him to scream out in pain. The ripped section of skin falls from his mouth before he can stop it.

The muscular cat feels himself being freed and spins to collect on his good fortune. More voices cry out in fear as Nick is sent tumbling to the ground in a heap, his muzzle smeared with the lion’s blood.

His opponent twirls in place and leans down to finish off the one who would dare to attack him so suddenly and violently. Nick’s remaining senses from his time as an officer kick in and force his body to spin to the side just as the lion gouges deep gashes into the dirt, right where he body was.

His attacker swings over to strike again, but is sent stumbling to the side as another body collides with him.

Nick looks up in time to see Tyler struggling to force the larger mammal to the ground. Even with his enhanced strength from his recent turning, the coyote is barely able to push the cat back. The two grapple for a few moments, giving Nick the chance to scramble to his paws and take in the scene around them.

Barry and Finnick are holding their shields up to protect the survivors behind them from the other madcats, in case they decide to start shooting again. Gazelle and Skye are barking commands at both the survivors and the cats.

Judy is trying to help his mother climb down out of the emergency exit. It just occurs to him now that he jumped down from a good height off the ground, the impact of landing barely felt thanks to the adrenaline that had quickly coursed through his system.

The remaining cats are trying to move closer, though they all look uncertain about how willing they are to follow through with their threats. It doesn’t help that Skye is aiming her rifle at them as she screams.

All in all, just another chaotic scene full of chaos.

Nick’s attention is drawn back to the brawl as a loud snapping sound tickles his ears. He turns to see Tyler squirming desperately with one of his arms bent at a horribly awkward angle inside the grip of the lion.

He doesn’t scream out in pain and seems to be more confused about how little the injury hurts him. But he definitely doesn’t want to be at the mercy of the large cat anymore.

Skye catches a glimpse of what’s being done to her pup and enters a state of mind similar to what Nick had been in when he dove off the bus. She becomes nothing more than a blur streaking towards the feline. Just as the lion reaches in to break the coyote even more, he feels an intensely sharp, burning pain flaring up his arm.

Another roar fills the field.

The lion looks down at his arm, his eyes following the trail of blood all the way up to the knife sticking out of him.

He doesn’t know what’s attacking him.

Skye is darting around him so fast that he can’t tell where or what she is. He tosses Tyler away so that he can swing in all directions. Every few seconds, he can feel another part of him being cut open. His eyes narrow into slits and his predatory instincts take over.

He sees her.

Just a glimpse, but it’s enough to know where she’s going next.

His leg shoots out and connects with the speeding body of the tan-colored bullet. Skye lets out a yelp of pain as she is sent spinning in the dirt. Tyler manages to intercept her and pulls her away from the fight with barely a sound before the lion can give chase.

Just as he’s trying to figure out who he’s actually fighting anymore, one of his legs is taken out from underneath him with a sickening crack. His scream of pain isn’t even a roar anymore. He’s being assaulted from all sides and it’s quickly wearing him out.

He jumps over the object being swung at his other shin, only to see that it’s a tiny undead fox with a bat who is fighting him now.

What is going on?

This was supposed to be an easy score!

Why are all these armed animals protecting a school bus?!

He tries to stomp on the runty looking fox, but a tremendous force collides with him and sends him flying through the air. Every last bit of oxygen exits his lungs the moment he lands. He doesn’t even roll to a stop, he just slams into the ground like he’s back flopping in a lake.

For a brief moment, he doesn’t have something attacking him. He sucks in as much air as he can to replace what was forced out of him and tries to enjoy the small moment of peace. The sky is extremely blue above him with hardly a cloud in the sky. It’s a lovely day for a raid.

He just chose the wrong band of survivors to mess with.

What even just hit him? It felt like he got slammed by a truck.

The lion struggles to push himself up onto his elbows and peers back at where he had been sent flying from.

It’s the damn polar bear cub again!

What is that thing made out of?!

The furry white monster gives him the stink eye as the rest of his attackers gather around him. They’re all together, fighting like a unit…

Are these trained military personnel?

They’re dressed in body armor and...pillows, in the cub’s case.

His eyes move over to the crowd of survivors, with two hulking bodies doing their best to protect them in case they happen to be fired upon. Are those more tigers?!

He hasn’t even been fighting the biggest mammals here and he’s still getting his ass kicked! This is getting ridiculous!

A solid lump pressing into his hip reminds him of one weapon he hasn’t even been able to use yet. And his cats still look like they have their guns on them as well…

Screw it.

This has gone on for too long.

He has to finish this.

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” he bellows, standing to his full height in an instant and trying to ignore the multiple injuries he’s sustained. His paw shoots to his revolver and he whips it out, pointing it at his opponents. He doesn’t care which one he kills first. They’ve all pissed him off equally as bad.

The group of oddities in front of him freezes, unsure of how to go about fighting now.

He sneers at them, suddenly feeling much more confident in his chances. Even if they’re strong, even if they have a supernaturally strong polar bear toddler on their side, they can’t survive a bullet through the face.

“CATS!” he calls out to his followers. “TAKE AIM!”

The temperature in the field drops several degrees as the remaining felines try to decide if they should follow his orders or not. The fox isn’t waving her rifle in their faces anymore...she dropped her gun when she rushed to stab the lion. But they still have two tigers bigger than any of them glaring into their souls and some kind of curvy horned mammal giving them orders.

Is there anything still to gain from fighting?

Most of them have been wanting to call it quits for awhile now, and the sight of their leader, cut and bruised beyond recognition, is only making the idea of carrying on more idiotic.

He just got shoved through the air by a polar bear cub.

Whoever this group is, they’re clearly not normal.

“I SAID TAKE AIM!” he bellows again. The cats flinch back as a group and hesitantly pull out what guns they have left. Each cat picks a random spot to aim at, not really caring who they might hit at this point.

Pretty much every one of their targets is terrifying.

The lion sees that his cats are finally obeying him and grins nastily at the mammals who dared cause him pain.

“This should have been easy! We’re apex predators! You all should have just known your places and accepted your deaths! Why do you even fight to stay alive in this shitty world?! It will be so much easier when you’re dead!” he screams, half in anger and half in genuine confusion.

The shirtless red fox steps forward, ignoring that the lion’s aim shifts to him. A grey bunny in the crowd struggles to leap into action, but is held back by the fennec.

“Yeah, it might be easier when we’re dead. We won’t have to worry about anything anymore and there will be no struggling to make it through each day.”

The fox steps closer.

The lion sneers at him, recognizing him as the one who shot up his van on the highway and almost killed him.

“But you know what?”

A smug grin is all the tiger gives him.

“The world will still be here when we die. There will be others around that will have to make those struggles. Some of us have to be the ones to make those hard decisions and forget about living easy lives. We’ll hurt...and we’ll suffer...but we do it so that those that come after us can continue on after we’re gone.”

The lion raises a brow.

“And us? We’re the ones who will put in as much effort as it takes to rid what’s left of the world of scum like you. You do nothing but take and kill, while we-Duke, you done yet?” Nick smirks as a small brown body scampers up the surprised feline’s arm and sits down smoothly on his wrist.

“Well, you gonna take the shot or not, big guy?”

The lion squeezes the trigger.

As soon as the hammer slams down, the revolver bursts into pieces, scattering down into the grass.

The stunned cat yells and drops the empty shell of the gun. As he drops his arm, the weasel leaps up onto the fox with only a devious chuckle left behind.

He turns to his followers, his anger flowing back into him. These punks are just playing now! Maybe if they see a few of the survivors die, they’ll start to understand just how serious this situation is!

“SHOOT! KILL THEM! KILL!” he roars, his voice cracking under the exhaustion he’s feeling.

The cats try to follow his order, but one by one, each of their guns breaks into individual parts. None of them are actually broken, but are falling apart anyway. It’s like they were disassembled and stuck together in such a way where they would hold a shape but any interaction with them would make the pieces scatter.

The lion looks on in disbelief as his team is disarmed, seemingly by a phantom.

A shrill whistle catches his attention and he turns to face the same stinking weasel who had been climbing on him for some reason.

The mustelid presents a bag that sounds like it’s filled with multiple sets of car keys as he jostles it. But then he opens the bag and dumps the contents out to reveal…

Bullets.

Ejector rods.

Various other crucial pieces that belong to the guns that all now lay scattered in the field. The lion stares at the weasel in disbelief, unable to comprehend how this little pest managed to pull this off without any of them noticing him.

Wait...he was already holding his revolver when the weasel appeared! What was he doing when he was climbing on him?

His pants fall down as if on cue.

The weasel nonchalantly picks his teeth with the peg of the lion’s belt buckle.

“Okay, now you can go,” the fennec says suddenly. The lion is unable to understand the meaning behind these words, his thoughts cut short by a flying grey missile slamming into his chest and knocking him backwards. He tries to catch his balance, but the pants around his ankles deem him unworthy of it.

The distraught lion finds himself on his back yet again.

He just needs a chance.

One lapse of judgement.

There’s nothing more in the world that he wants than to be given the chance to kill at least one of them.

And by rotten luck, he’s given it.

One of his cats pulls a hidden gun out of their pants and examines it curiously, unsure if it was tampered with or not. They give it a test shot by pointing it at the dirt at their paws and pulling the trigger.

The shot that rings out startles everyone in the clearing, including the gun’s owner. The fox, weasel and bunny turn their heads to see if anyone they know was at the receiving end of the bullet.

The lion sees his chance and takes it.

With one massive leap forward, he wraps his paws around the throats of the fox and weasel.

And squeezes with all his might.


	53. Crack

Everything is blurry.

For Nick, the entire world consists of mixed lights and a feeling of desperation.

He felt pain at first, but quickly grew numb to it. The only thing left is the flashing colors and the panic. There’s also a distant booming sound, but it’s too far away to make out.

As he drifts farther and farther from the sound, the colors start to dim and he feels more peaceful with what’s going on. What is even happening, anyway?

He remembers a bunch of stuff happening at once...a constant ringing in his ears...a bunch of screaming and growling going back and forth. Something involving Judy. And his mom was there too. Was everyone around him?

Was it all just a dream?

Whatever it was, he’s away from it now.

A chill flows through him, but he’s not upset about it. In fact, he’s probably the calmest he’s ever been. The idea of being upset seems so foreign to him now, like it was silly to ever think anything was wrong.

The booming is barely a mumble now.

And as it leaves, it takes the light and colors with it. He tries to wave to them as they go, but he doesn’t seem to have any limbs anymore.

How delightful!

The chill grows colder around him and his vision starts to be consumed by blackness. The growing void around him seems strange, but...oddly familiar. He has no idea what’s happening, but at the same time, he knows exactly what is going on.

He feels it in the remaining bits of consciousness that he has left.

Nick knows that he’s dying.

He’s either dead or close to it. What happened to him? Did something get him? He doesn’t remember Judy biting him or getting him sick, so he isn’t sure if he’ll be coming back to see her. His mood darkens slightly at the thought of leaving her behind, but the oddly comforting frosty feeling is keeping him from becoming too distraught.

He’ll see her again at some point.

He knows it.

But he really wishes he got to tell her that he loves her one last time…

She knows.

She has to know.

If he vanishes without her knowing, he’ll...he’ll...HE’LL BITE SOMEONE’S FACE OFF!

Forcefully, against the will of his biology, he pushes his consciousness back towards the distant blur of colors and sound. It feels like he’s crawling through mud to get there, if the mud was made of an intense burning sensation. Every part of his rational mind is telling him to just let go and fall back, where the pain isn’t present.

But he knows that if he lets himself fall back now, he’ll never be able to come back. In front of him is pain, anguish and misery. Behind him is calm, peace and numbness.

But Judy is in front of him, not behind him.

So it’s not really a hard decision.

He moves closer and closer to the source of light still lingering in the far reaches of his fizzling brain. At first, he doesn’t feel like he’s getting closer to it at all.

But then he starts to hear the booming sound again. It starts off as an echo, but becomes clearer the closer he moves. The burning sensation is like an inferno now, causing a panic to rise up in his chest.

His chest.

He can feel his body again!

Somewhat!

Further and further he pushes.

He ignores the agonizing feeling of fire burning in his chest. The lights and sounds start to become something he can actually make out.

The lights are the sights around him, still blurred by the moisture lingering in his eyes from being squeezed.

The booming is his heart, struggling to stay functional as his brain is starved of oxygen.

The sounds are voices, screaming back and forth around him in some kind of tense stand-off. He can make out the voices of Judy, his mom, and...is that Gazelle?

With her talents as a vocalist, she’s naturally the loudest one among them. And boy, is she pissed. Whoever she’s screaming at must have done something pretty damn bad to warrant threats of being forcefully fed to themself.

The shapes around him focus enough for him to start making them out. There’s a gray blur closest to him but staying back for some reason.

That must be Judy.

A loud sound right next to him catches his attention. Nick’s bloodshot eyes struggle to move over to where the yelling is coming from.

A small brown shape is writhing in pain as a disturbing crunching noise is heard. The screaming only gets worse after each pop or snap.

Duke 

Nick pulls himself back into clarity as he sees his friend being squeezed to death. The screaming stops and Duke’s body slumps forward limply. His ragged breathing is still audible but it doesn't sound healthy.

Another voice rings out from directly behind Nick. It’s the same infuriating voice he remembers from the scenes playing out right before the voice started to call to him.

It sounds like it’s demanding something but the ringing in Nick’s ears from all the gunfire is still too overpowering. When Judy’s section of blurred colors doesn’t respond right away, Nick hears another pop and Duke’s screaming is resumed.

It’s that lion…

This bastard lion is hurting Duke!

He is suddenly aware of the intense pain coming from his chest. His body needs oxygen! He’s being strangled!

He suddenly gets a burst of energy and uses it to its maximum effectiveness. The lion is taken by surprise as Nick reaches up with his front paws and sinks his claws deep into the wrist of the one choking him.

The lion roars again and tries to let go. Nick quickly finds the offending limb and sinks his teeth into it while also suckin in as much air as he can. As the seconds pass, his vision starts to clear up.

Everything is still a blur, but now it’s just because he’s being swung every which way as the tiger tries to escape his teeth.

He can’t hear Duke screaming anymore and the lion’s other paw looking empty, so the weasel must have been dropped.

That’s a plus.

Hopefully the others can tend to him quickly to figure out how much internal damage was done.

Nick starts to taste that familiar disgusting tangy copper taste again and knows it to be the lion’s blood. It’s about time he makes his escape, anyway. Any longer and the lion will get a grip on him.

The discombobulated fox lets go and feels himself flying backwards towards the dirt, not having the energy to right himself in mid-air yet. He expects to land painfully, but is pleasantly surprised when he feels several paws catching his body and stopping his descent.

He smells the familiar scents of Judy, his brother, Barry and...he smelled his mother and Corduroy a moment ago, but they’re strangely absent now.

To his side, he sees a much taller figure sliding to the ground and lifting something from the grass. He figures that the horned shape must be Gazelle, and she’s picking up...

Oh no.

Duke is hanging limply from her grip. As much as she tries to wake him or or draw any sort of response, he doesn’t answer. Nick’s heart sinks as he is forced to listen to Gazelle’s forlorn cries of desperation.

Over and over, she screams out for him.

She’s begging him to stay.

Her gaze quickly turns to Nick, but he’s too out of sorts to offer anything in return. After scanning through the rest of her friends, her frantic stare settles on Tyler. The young coyote is tending to Skye, who is down for the count after that hit that she took. The pop singer-turned refugee leader looks like she’s trying to process some other option involving the coyote.

She knows he’s a recent turn.

She saw what he did to those first few felines.

And most of all, she can see the bloodstains from where he was shot when he was still alive. The area is now turning black from the undead ooze leaking out of the still-open bullet holes.

Nick watches Gazelle as she turns back to her dear friend and tries to decide on something. Whatever it is she’s considering, she’s waging a war against herself over it.

The fox starts to realize what she’s planning, and struggles to move himself to stop her. He feels other forces trying to hold him still. With as little energy as he has, he can hardly fight against his undead family members.

Gazelle presses her forehead to Duke’s body.

And then she opens her mouth to bite him.

Nick’s eyes widen as he watches the undead mammal prepare to infect one more. But just as her teeth hover over the mustelid’s skin, he lets out a tiny, choked groan and stirs slightly. In an instant, Gazelle pulls her teeth away and brings her friend up to her face.

Slowly, but surely, Duke wakes back up. The first thing he sees is his best friend’s face looming directly over him. Instead of freaking out or crying in pain, the weasel places a trembling paw up to her face and gently touches her nose. His other arm hangs at a weird angle and it sounds like he’s struggling to breathe, but he’s still here. Gazelle didn’t lose him just yet.

With tears of relief trailing down her face, she presses his head to hers and enjoys the feeling of warmth that he gives her.

As the two have their moment, Nick turns away to give them their privacy. He knows that the weasel likely needs a lot of medical attention, but Gazelle is like a painkiller for him. As long as she’s at his side, Nick knows that Duke will make it.

A falling shape catches Nick’s attention. He sees that the lion is struggling to stay upright as a spherical object zooms around in the grass, slamming into the feline’s ankles every time he stands back up.

Nick recognizes the rolling ball as his honorary step-father, Corduroy. Instead of his helmet, the tod is now piloting his favorite ball. Before now, he hadn’t actually seen the body-less fox using his ball offensively. He was told of its destructive ability after the wolf raid, but he couldn’t believe it until he saw it.

And now that he’s seeing it, he still can’t believe it.

How can Corduroy go that fast just by rolling his head around? How is he piloting the ball so precisely? It’s like he’s becoming the ball!

The lion gets more pissed every time he’s knocked back down. He tries to swipe at the ball, but all he manages to hit is the air where Corduroy was. He ducks low and tries jumping away from the strike zone, but the tod soars through the air after him and smacks him right in the ass. The frustrated feline yips like he’s a cub getting his hide tanned for stealing a cookie.

But Corduroy is missing a certain element.

Where is his mate? The fox blinks weakly around to clear his vision some more, but he still can’t find her. But he can smell her. She is still around them somewhere, but where did she-

Just as the lion manages to scrape the side of Corduroy’s ball, Nick sees a familiar form leaping out of the grass and landing over the sphere.

Standing over Corduroy is the same vixen who raised Nick with all the love in the world. No matter what mischief he got into as a kit, she never gave up on him. Even after his father left and Nick started disappearing for nights at a time, she always welcomed his return with open arms and a hot meal. He didn’t want to talk about where he’d been and she never pushed him over the edge about it. She’s literally the closest thing to an angel Nick can imagine.

...Which is why it’s so unnerving to see her snarling face contorted with such rage, her glowing red eyes making her look like she had crawled her way up from hell just to see him.

She lets out a demonic bark and sends the lion scrambling back to get away from her. For the first time, his face is twisted in something other than smug hostility or furious anger. The sight of the vixen scares him so badly that he drops his macho exterior and allows himself a single squeal of terror.

Nick’s mother reaches down to find where her mate is, secures him in her grip and retreats with him, unwilling to allow him to endanger himself any further.

He did his job.

When the lion looks around wildly to call for help, he’s treated to the same sight that Nick is currently taking in.

The remaining madcats are sprawled out on the grass, the two armored tigers having relieved them of all their weapons and restrained them in what felt like only moments. The lynx that Tyler had spared is talking to his group members, assuring them all that this is the best course of action.

The lion’s face falls.

He’s alone now.

Everybody knows it. Without his group members backing him up and with his ass already planted in the dirt, he has no hope of coming out of this situation on top. His days as the leader of his group of road warriors are over. His cats have abandoned him. His enemies are looming over him. If he had any sense of self-preservation, he would surrender like his cats before him.

But apparently he doesn’t.

When the truth finally dawns on him completely, he seems to snap. Nick’s eyes widen as the large cat’s insane glare settles on him.

Out of everyone in the field at the moment, Nick can tell that the lion hates him the most. Barry might be a close second, but the cat wouldn’t dare face the cub in fist fight after what happened with the van.

Disregarding the multiple undead mammals surrounding his prey, the lion tries to charge forward to finish off the one he got so close to killing.

Nick can feel Judy tensing up as she readies for the attack. Finnick’s low growl rumbles the dirt under his tail and the loud pang of a bat hitting the ground reaches his ears. A chorus of crackling noises sounds off right in his ear.

Apparently Barry knows how to crack his knuckles in the most disturbing way imaginable.

Marian and Corduroy slide in front of him, creating a defensive barrier around Nick consisting of his dearest loved ones. Even though he has a maddened predator bearing down on him with murderous intent, Nick hasn’t felt quite as safe as he does at this moment in...a long time.

The raw emotion he feels from being surrounded on all sides by his family doing their best to keep him safe almost makes him choke up.

And not in the strangling way.

Not this time.

“THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!” the furious cat bellows as spittle flies from his lips. The ones around Nick prepare to clash as he gets closer by the second.

Before he can reach them, however, he is grabbed from behind by the scruff of the neck and yanked backwards.

He scrambles against the grass to stop his rolling, but his momentum is too great. He loses control of his body and flails wildly, resembling a sand-colored rag doll inside of a dryer.

When he jumps back up to give his attacker what for, he comes face to face with the grimacing features of a cat much larger than he is. Every minute that passes seems to be throwing another contender into the ring against the outnumbered animal.

Nick watches anxiously as Chadwick stares down at the one who tried to kill his friends. In Duke’s case, the lion came very close to succeeding.

Both cats are beyond words at this point. If there was any hope of resolving this like the situation with Skye, it had long since passed.

All that is left is a merciless bandit leader abandoned by his followers. And right now, he might as well be staring up at the Grim Reaper himself.

In the eye that isn’t glowing a fiery red, the lion can see the endless black void of whatever comes after. He stares into the abyss.

And the abyss stares back.

Nick suddenly feels like he’s about to witness something that will haunt him for the rest of his days. And he’s not the only one.

Even after the blood and gore that Judy and Barry have witnessed and taken part in, this isn’t going to be something they’ll handle well.

With what little energy he has left, the fox squirms until he’s facing his bunny. For the first time in what seems like ages, the two look into each other’s eyes.

She looks scared.

But determined.

Her nose twitches at him so cutely. It’s one of the many things about her that he loves. Her wide violet eyes focus on him, shining with such relief. He doesn’t blame her for being worried.

He’s pretty sure he almost died just a few minutes earlier.

If his frazzled memory is accurate.

“Nick, what are you…?” she asks in confusion. He realizes that he’s just been staring at her instead of doing what he turned around to do. His eyes turn to the furry white body of his nephew.

Barry is standing at the ready next to his adoptive father, both of them looking like the oddest pair that somehow match completely. The furious fennec and the overpowered polar bear.

“Hey, Finn, bud…” Nick coughs, the feeling of being choked still present. He can feel his neck bruising already.

Finnick flinches and looks over. He wants to be happy that Nick is more aware of his surroundings, but he can’t risk dropping his guard around the lion again. The last time he did, he had to witness his brother’s eyes rolling into the back of his head and foam leaking from his muzzle.

“What? Busy here, Nick!” Finnick whispers quickly.

“Not sure Bianca would want Barry seeing this…” Nick warns, using his brother’s respect for his mate against him. It’s a bit of a slimy tactic, but he knows that Finn wouldn’t listen otherwise.

The fennec’s ears flick and slowly lower down as he takes stock of the situation. Chadwick, one of the strongest, biggest and scariest mammals possibly in existence is squaring up with a standard, living lion.

The lion throws a punch.

“Ooh, crap. Yeah. Yo, Barry?” Finn suddenly asks, breaking his adoptive son’s attention away from the fight. The cub blinks and turns to his father, the pillows still strapped to him making him look even larger than he actually is.

“Hm?”

“Hey, uh...how ‘bout we look at something...over there?” he urges weakly, struggling to come up with anything plausible to switch his attention to. Luckily, Barry trusts him enough to follow the direction of his extended claw.

Nick takes his lead and does the same, using his own trembling paw to avert Judy’s gaze in the same direction as his brother.

“Oh, Judy, it’s...cough...a thing! Over there...in the trees!” the fox expertly pretends to gasp. His bunny turns to the treeline, just as he had hoped.

Behind them, the sounds of a struggle erupt violently, catching both Barry’s and Judy’s ears. The two mammals try to whip their heads around to see what’s happening, but the two Wilde brothers are quick to hold them in place.

“No, I’m serious!” Finn barks, purposely using his voice to overwhelm the screaming coming from the clearing behind him. “It’s amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life!”

The larger of the two brothers groans internally at how overboard the other is going.

However, it seems to convince the other two.

As Barry and Judy scan the trees for whatever spectacular thing the foxes are referring to, the crowd of survivors can be seen reacting to the scuffle happening to their rear. Multiple ‘Ooh’s can be heard after every sickening impact sound. 

The surrendered madcats watch as well, but seem to take each pained wail and crunching noise more personally. One of them has to lean against one of Chadwick’s comrades for support as he empties his stomach into the grass. The bewildered tiger pats the cat’s back slowly, uncertain if he should be hostile or comforting to the distraught feline. The rest of them can’t look away from what is being done to their once seemingly-fierce leader.

Surprisingly, Duke is one of the ones unable to watch what is happening. Nick would have thought he would relish the sight of the lion getting what’s been coming to him. But then again, the fox figures that the weasel understands the pain that the lion is going through more than anyone. Maybe he doesn’t want to have to relive that experience again, even if only visually.

Gazelle, on the other paw, is glaring intensely at the beatdown. With how much trouble she’s been through to keep all these mammals safe, just knowing that someone like the lion would try to just rob the innocent of their lives infuriates her to no end. Not to mention how badly he hurt her best friend. For as much as she hates violence, she can’t help the feeling of satisfaction from seeing the one who hurt so many others being put through similar pain.

He deserves whatever he gets and more.

Tyler is too busy trying to use his good arm to check Skye over for injuries. Not seeing any blood, the coyote had removed parts of her armor so he can more accurately scan for anything that might signal internal damage.

Skye’s ear twitches at the sound of something snapping in the field to the side of her.

Judy’s ears keep trying to turn to the disturbing sounds, but she resists. At this point, she can tell that the two foxes were just trying to spare her the lingering memory of the lion being slaughtered and keeps facing the forest.

“I don’t see anything...are you sure there’s something over there?” Barry asks, a bit of a huff leaving him as he crosses his thick furry arms.

“Yeah, I see it!” Judy assures him, trying not to pay any attention to the constant hisses of the survivors' reaction to the fight. She points in roughly the same direction, her paw singling out a bird making its nest in a tree. The bird looks up like its privacy has just been invaded.

“The bird?” the cub asks incredulously.

“Yeah!” Judy and the two foxes answer simultaneously.

“I mean...it’s kinda cool, but...what about the l-?”

“What is your name, small cat?” Chadwick’s voice booms across the field, completely audible to every living and undead mammal in the clearing. Everybody goes completely silent. Barry’s entire body freezes at how cold and dangerous the tiger’s tone is. No one can move a muscle as they wait for the lion’s response.

The ones who were watching can’t look away.

The ones who averted their gaze don’t dare turn around.

“I…” the lion manages to choke out, his voice hinting at just how broken his body currently is.

“I am…” he tries again.

“I AM IN-” he wails, but his voice is immediately overtaken by a shrill CRACK. A raspy, unsettling whisper is the last noise the lion ever makes.

“Chadwick does not care. Coward has no name,” the tiger growls, his voice somehow dropping the temperature in the clearing. A shiver passes through every body within earshot, even those that don’t have a beating heart anymore.

Nick takes as deep of a breath as he can, letting the feeling of relief flow through him.

He doesn’t even have to see the body to know that it’s over.

The lion went claw-to-claw with Chadwick.

He never stood a chance.

The looks on the faces of the other madcats are...surprisingly relieved. They seem to be just as happy that it’s over as the rest of the survivors and rescuers.

Nick lets that thought pass through him again just to feel it all over again.

It’s over.

He lays back in the grass and stares up at the sky.

It’s over.

Judy’s face blocks out some of the sunlight as she peers down at him with worry in her eyes.

It’s over.

In his peripheral vision, Nick can see his brother trying to comfort Barry after having to hear those noises.

It’s over.

The survivors let out some half-hearted cheers, their elation dampened by what they’ve witnessed.

But still, it’s over.

It’s over and they never even learned the lion’s name.

Chadwick made damn sure of that.


	54. Clap

Nick lets out a groan of relief as he slides his rump into the familiar indent in the car seat that he had formed from his time as a cop.

The cruiser feels like he had never left, besides for maybe a slightly more dead-animal smell lingering in the air. The radio is still set to the same station, the crack in the windshield is still there, even Judy’s plush PawKit babies are still hugging each other. He feels every memory from his time spent with Judy in the cruiser running through his head.

The first day on the job, where he had to impound Flash’s sports car. Apparently he never got over that.

The first real car chase, where Judy forgot that the criminal was driving a much smaller vehicle and ran it over when she tried to ram it. What a day that was, especially when he got to listen to her try to explain herself to Po-...Bogo.

The countless evenings spent just staring out at the mammals that passed them, trying to stay awake but sometimes failing in shifts.

The first time he almost died...besides for the trouble she got him into during the nighthowler crisis. There’s nothing quite light being blindsided by an accelerating car and only dropping down to dodge it by the hair of his teeth. When he disappeared under the car, he could tell Judy thought he was surely a goner. The sounds she made were proof enough of that.

He’s been through so much in only a month. It’s hard to believe that he was a cop for so much longer, yet it all seems so far away now. Maybe someday, some sense of normality will return.

But for now, he’ll just have to put up with the chaos that the world has fallen into.

From his seat, he can see Skye fussing over Tyler’s arm, even though she’s clearly in more pain than he is. She holds her middle section and winces whenever she twists awkwardly, a sign that something inside of her is either broken or bruised from that kick she ate. The coyote, though more visibly damaged with his crooked arm, is faring much better. He can’t feel much, and his dangling paw still seems to be under his control despite the break. Being undead doesn’t seem to bother him too much, now.

Skye sure is being clingy, though. The vixen is frantically checking the pup over for any other injuries, despite his assurances that he is fine. Nick can’t help notice the slight moisture that is gathering in her eyes, no doubt born from the bittersweet emotions she feels from seeing him moving even after watching him die.

For situations like theirs...maybe the infection isn’t so bad. It kept Tyler around when he otherwise would have faded from this world.

The survivors, at least the ones still outside the bus, are busy profusely thanking the undead saviors they can manage to find. Chadwick and Gazelle are already back on his helicopter, doing what they can to help Duke to prepare him for the flight back. There were some questions regarding finding a doctor to help a living mammal, but they were quickly assured by Finnick that he knew someone who would be happy to help.

That leaves his mother, step-father, brother, nephew and the two other tigers behind to get the hero’s welcome. At this point, barely any of the survivors were phased by them being undead. They’d seen what they were willing and able to do to keep them safe.

Marian had gotten her preferred glass eyes back before Duke went into the safety of the chopper. Without her scary face active, plenty of survivors found it in themselves to thank her and Corduroy profusely. She looks a bit flustered at the attention, but can’t help the smile on her face from spreading. Corduroy is likewise beaming. If he still had his tail, it would surely be wagging. He was just ecstatic to be part of a team effort once more.

Finnick deflects any of the attention placed on him directly to his son, smirking as he does so. Barry is undoubtedly the star of the ball right now, after having the entire bus full of living mammals bear witness to his amazing feats of strength. Nick can read lips fairly well, and the phrase he keeps seeing is ‘supplex’. Each new fan of his makes the poor cub tense up awkwardly like he doesn’t know how to respond. There must be a fierce itch brewing on the back of his neck, because he hasn’t stopped scratching at it since the first undead teen canine ran up to give him her thanks.

Nick smirks, knowing that the cub will probably be a lady’s bear one day. If his body ages, that is…

And if Selena lets him.

Oh boy.

That little spitfire likely won’t take too well to what he’s been up to out here without her. Neither will Bianca, for the matter. No matter what happens, the two of them are likely in for a world of hurt once they return.

But Barry’s a strong cub. He won’t let any destruction or vengeful vaporization befall his new dad.

Nick watches with a tired smirk as Chadwick’s two friends do their best to pack up the bus while avoiding being mobbed by the thankful survivors. Even back when they were dancers, they didn’t like crowds, from what Chadwick mentioned. The nervous looks they get while they load the remaining madcats into the back of the bus are evidence enough of their more withdrawn nature.

The remaining large felines are another issue entirely.

Nick still isn’t sure how they’re going to do with them yet. Judy is still out there talking it over with the others.

A new leader of the bunch was apparently chosen. The lynx that had called for surrender and kept his remaining friends alive seems to be keeping them cooperative. Small miracles, at least.

For the time being, the injured fox just takes in the familiar silence of the inside of his cruiser. He uses the tips of his fingers to feel the comfortable fabric that makes up his seat, not able to use his whole paw because of the bandages. The raw skin left from when he was firing the gun still stings, but he’s too at peace at the moment to care.

The sun shines through the tinted windshield which blocks the more harmful rays but lets the warmth in.

He just now notices that he still doesn’t have a shirt on. The fox glances around lazily for something to cover himself with when his eyes call on a strangely familiar piece of cloth.

Is that his shirt?

It looks like his shirt.

And it smells like…

Snf snf 

...His shirt mixed with his bunny’s cheek. He doesn’t know how she got this after he threw it out the back of the bus during the chase, but she didn’t hesitate to rub her cheeks all over it apparently.

He quickly rubs his own cheeks over her scent to better mix them before throwing it back over his shoulders with some slight difficulty. Every part of him is sore, but his neck, paws and head hurt especially.

After some slow shuffling, he’s able to button his shirt back up. Feeling more complete again, the fox sighs in contentment and leans back in his seat so he can look at the roof of the cruiser.

All of that actually happened, didn’t it?

The guns, the chase, the killing...all of it involved him. He shot a few mammals and they are no longer living. They aren’t even undead.

They’re just...gone.

He tries to convince himself that he did the right thing; that they were bad mammals and deserved their fates.

But...that look in their eyes when they realized that they were hit...the same expression that Barry wore when they got that wolf’s teeth out of him...those looks will stay in his head until his brain finally rots away for good.

A shiver passes through him, trying to expel the sudden chill that had fallen over his body.

It’s over now.

It’s over.

Things can start going according to plan again.

And the plan is to...go to Meadowbrooke.

Or something like that.

Nick notices that the survivors are loading themselves back into the bus, offering grateful parting waves as they go. Chadwick’s buddies are oddly enough getting into the bus as well. What the hell did they decide on doing?

It looks like he won’t have to wait long to find out. Judy and everyone else he knows are making their way towards the cruiser with bittersweet looks on their faces. Is he not going to like what he has to hear? What could possibly be wrong now? The nameless lion maniac and the fallen madcats are being treated to a proper cremation courtesy of Skye and Tyler, so what else is there to do?

The bus is miraculously fine. Not even a flat tire to speak of.

The chopper has to be in working order, otherwise Chadwick and Gazelle wouldn’t have Duke in there.

It’s not like the madcats’ vans can be used; Duke saw fit to dismantle the engines of the remaining ones before he revealed himself earlier. The lion had gotten lucky and managed to start the only van that Duke had yet to tamper with.

So what…?

As Judy gets closer, Nick notices that her pace increases and her posture straightens up slightly. There’s a slightly excited look on her face that he can’t help adoring.

News can’t be that bad, then.

Or maybe she’s just happy that she is getting closer to him.

Naaaaaah…

Although…

The fox looks among the rest of his family.

Marian and Corduroy are inseparable. Free of the helmet that had contained him, the tod has such a peaceful look on his face. It’s an expression that says ‘everything worked out for the most part and now I get to snuggle.’

And snuggle he does.

His mother has her arms wrapped tightly around him in what almost seems like a protective gesture. Maybe the thought of what the lion could have done to him is still fresh in her mind. Almost losing her son was bad enough, but the thought of losing her son and mate?

Nick doubts she would survive. Well...she probably wouldn’t be able to exist, anyway.

Barry and Finnick are stomping along like they just won the lottery. Nick never thought he’d see the day when his brother did the ‘father-son’ walk. That boisterous gait that radiates pride over the highlight of their life. But there he is, shoving Barry and laughing loudly about something.

Barry playfully shoves back and the smaller fox goes flying.

Chuckles all around.

Even from Judy.

This is his family.

No matter where he goes or what he does with his life, he knows that these amazing creatures will always be there, waiting for him to come home.

Something buzzes in his pocket.

Huh?

He had his phone on his this whole time? With the fight he was involved in, he’s shocked that the phone isn’t in pieces right now. But that’s the idea behind spending the extra cash on a genuine OtterBox, though. Give your phone the ol’ indestructible Zookia treatment.

Who is-

Oh. 

Oh crap.

That’s how many missed calls?

All from a number he hasn’t saved yet. A blank image pops up for the caller ID. This could be anyone. Does he dare answer…?

Yes.

Yes, he does.

He slides the bar over to accept the call, and is immediately greeted by the sounds of a very distraught, very yippy arctic vixen. Not only her voice, though. Without noticing, he had accepted a MuzzleTime request and now the two are staring at each other, Bianca’s words dying in her throat as she takes in his appearance.

He must look pretty bad.

Blood is still dried in his fur from when his ear was shot off, his neck is likely swollen from the fight and his paws are bandaged.

But beyond that, he must look as tired as he feels. After everything, he feels nothing short of exhausted. Even in his surprised state from seeing her face, he can tell his eyes aren’t more than halfway open.

“Nick!” she finally manages to shoot. “What happened to you?! What is with the blood?!”

As soon as she says this, a much higher-pitched voice begins chattering wildly in the background, begging for the vixen’s attention.

Nick knows this voice all too well.

Selena.

Of course Bianca would just say that out loud with the excitable bunny in the room with her…

This is not a conversation he wants to have. If anything, this is his brother’s bomb to diffuse.

Speak of the minuscule devil.

Judy chooses this exact moment to open Nick’s door with the crowd gathering around. As soon as Finnick is in reach, Nick pushes his paw towards him and shoves the phone into the smaller fox’s grip. Finnick looks confused for a moment before seeing just who is on the other end of the call.

His ears slam down against the back of his skull as he becomes the target of his mate’s wrath.

“WHERE IS HE?!” Nick can hear the vixen’s voice screeching through the phone. Barry backs away a bit as he realizes what is happening. His father’s paw somehow manages to shoot out and grab onto him.

Everyone else gives the two sympathetic looks. They all know what is coming.

Finnick, still without saying anything, drags his boy away from the group to have the nasty conversation that might actually result in one or both of them being incinerated...over the phone.

“Yikes…” Judy mumbles as she watches Finnick and Barry stomp off to somewhere private.

“They’re doomed!” Corduroy chirps, his voice unnervingly chipper. He receives a light smack on the head from his own mate, but he’s still in too good of a mood to care.

Nick and Judy offer their family uncertain glances before trying to move on.

There’s a strange heat emanating from where Finn and Barry went.

All four of them shiver, despite Corduroy not having a body. Instead, his entire head vibrates slightly. The sensation apparently tickles Marian, who yips out a quick laugh before she’s able to stop herself.

Another smack on the head for Roy.

“Bad!” Marian scolds, though with a very obvious smirk. The tod does what he can to look up at her, but her grip on him is tight.

“Just don’t use those red eyes on me!” he chuckles. Her cheeks puff up slightly as she pouts.

“Don’t tempt me,” she warns.

As much as she wants to be mad at him for teasing her, his joy is infectious and makes it impossible for her to resist joining along in the merriment.

Nick tilts his head at the two.

Corduroy is usually pretty upbeat, but this is a bit much for even him. Relief is one thing, but this is a happiness he hasn’t seen before.

It’s like the fox has suddenly solved the riddle of his own existence. Whatever happened between them, Nick can tell that his step-father recently figured something out.

It doesn’t really matter what it is.

As long as he can be the one to always pull Marian up from her sadness and guide her way through the dark, Nick considers him family. He’s more than proven how much he cares.

Still, it’s a bit weird to see a fox around his age getting all lovey with his mother.

That’s...definitely a mood.

A hellish glow can be seen coming from behind the parked bus, exactly where Finnick and Barry had disappeared to. Nick can see that the occupants of the bus are moving to the other side to see out the window.

What kind of hell…?

“Sooo…” Judy says after coughing loudly to get her fox’s attention. Nick blinks and turns away from the imminent disaster. He finds his bunny looking up at him expectantly from the step leading into the cruiser. It’s her favorite spot to hover when she’s trying to talk to him.

“So?” Nick repeats.

“Sooo...we decided what we’re going to do,” she says cautiously. The fox’s brow raises as he hears this, having somehow forgotten that his future was being chosen.

“Yeah? Whatcha got for me?” he yawns, trying to act like he’s not nervous about what’s going to happen with him.

“We decided together that Chadwick and Gazelle are going to take the others back to my farm to get Duke fixed up. I guess that doctor from Gazelle’s house is staying there now and they trust her. Skye and Tyler are going to keep driving until they get to Meadowbrooke, then they’ll figure out what to do with Tyler once they get everyone where they need to go,” she explains.

“What about the cats?” Nick asks as he gestures towards the remaining madcats.

“They’ll also be going to Meadowbrooke and have promised to help with upkeep on the wall.”

“There’s a wall now?”

“There’s a wall now.”

“Huh...okay. Do you guys actually trust them enough to keep them on the same bus as everyone else?” he asks suspiciously.

“Not really. That’s why the tigers are going on the bus with them,” she says.

Nick sits back in his car seat and ponders the logistics behind their plan. In theory, Chadwick’s buddies could no doubt handle any situation that might arise during the rest of the drive to Meadowbrooke.

“How’re they getting back, after they get there?” he asks curiously. Judy perks up a bit more at this question, apparently happy to answer.

“Well, they’ll ride along with me on the way back!” she chirps.

Huh?

“Huh?” he balks.

“Once we get there, they’ll just ride in the back seats. Don’t worry, your seat is for you only. You’re my only shotgun!” she says all of this with a wide, excited smile on her face.

“Hold up! Wait...does that mean that you’re going to…”

“Drive you the rest of the way?” she offers with that same wide smile on her face.

“...Are you?”

“Nope!” 

Nick can only stare with his most absent, confused expression. Okay, this little bunny is throwing him for some kind of loop.

“Oh, of course I am!” she cheers as she jumps up and wraps her arms around his neck. An immediate burning, twisting sensation erupts where the lion had tried to pop his head off like a daisy.

He doesn’t even realize he yipped until he sees the reactions from the mammals around him. A more sullen silence falls over the family as they ponder the truth of the situation. Everything might be fine now, but Nick had come very close to dying.

Not turning and coming back like the others, but straight up flatlining.

Expiring.

Buying the farm.

Digging a foxhole and laying in it.

The fact that he’s still here is only because he managed to push through the haze of death and fight through the pain.

Facing death...it’s different now then when Bellwether’s gang had almost thrown him from the roof. Back then, he accepted it.

Welcomed it, even.

But now?

After going through everything and knowing what he does now, he can’t let it be all for nothing. There has to be some sort of justification for this. Even if he has to make it himself, he won’t go out without a fight.

Fate will have to drag him to hell clawing and biting if it really, truly wants him.

Until then, Nick knows what he has to do.

He has to help save the future of the world…

And love his bunny.

“Sorry!” Judy apologizes after she climbs down off of him. The words have barely left her mouth when she’s grabbed up by the suddenly-clingy fox and pulled into a bone crushing hug. If she was still alive, he might actually have hurt her. But as she is now, she only slightly feels her ribs rubbing together uncomfortably.

“So we get the rest of the drive to ourselves?” Nick asks, starting to understand why she’s so happy about the plan. With what little movement she can manage, Judy does a squirmy dance and practically sings in excitement.

“Yes!”

Their elation is interrupted by a sudden flash of light and a wave of heat spreading over them. Every set of eyes present in the clearing turn to the bus. Even Marian can tell where it came from.

The survivors are scrambling around inside the large vehicle like they had just seen something horrifying.

Fearing the worst, Nick forces himself out of the car seat, ignoring the pain lingering all over his body. Judy and his parents are right behind him as he hobbles his way to the bus. He isn’t prepared for what he finds next.

The first thing his eyes notice is his brother.

The normally sand-colored fennec is flat on his back and painted black. Nick can smell something still burning and immediately knows it to be his brother’s fur.

Finnick is a good distance away from a suspiciously crackling crater in the ground. If Nick didn’t know any better, he’d think Finn had just lost a bet against a live grenade.

The fox spins his head towards a strange whining sound. Much closer to the crater, he finds a familiar polar bear cub somehow embedded in the dirt up to his neck. Barry isn’t charred black like his father, but smells just as strongly of brimstone.

Judy and the others arrive to take in the scene.

Corduroy smiles smugly like he had been expecting to see something like this.

Judy just gasps and clamps her paws over her mouth.

Marian can’t see.

“What...just happened here…?” Nick ponders out loud. At the sound of his voice, Finnick starts to stir lightly. A few groans and creaking bones are the only signs left to let them know that he’s still animated.

Judy moves forward to help out the cub.

He’s sniffling like a kit who had just been caught stealing a cookie.

“Barry? What happened? Are you okay?” she asks with her voice full of concern.

The cub, normally so large and imposing thanks to his strength, is so meek when he answers her.

“We’re grounded…” he mumbles weakly.

“You’re grounded?” Nick asks, trying to wrap his head around the scene.

“No…” Finnick says as he lifts himself from the dirt as slowly as he can. From their position, it looks like he’s crawling up from a grave.

“We’re grounded…” he corrects darkly.

Nick and Judy look between the two. One is burnt and the other is buried up to his neck in the ground.

How did she…?

Over the phone…?

“Did Bianca do this…?” Judy asks the sunken cub. He shakes his head slowly, a response that draws Nick’s attention.

“Then who?” the bunny asks again.

“Selena…” 

Corduroy seems to be vibrating again, but this time it’s caused by his attempts to stifle his own giddy laughter.

Judy lets out a sigh of relief.

At least they’re not hurt…

But that little bunny is apparently much, much scarier than she had been letting on this whole time.

“Here you are!” a voice booms from above them. They all spin to see Chadwick peeking around the side of the bus at them, an urgent look in his remaining eye.

He sees the cub and his dad with a crater between them.

“The mate?” he asks Finnick.

“The sister…” Barry answers instead. The tiger glances between them before giving both a knowing nod.

“Cub and little fox let off easy. When Chadwick run off to join war, mother send letter with itch powder inside. Chadwick could NOT stop itching for weeks! Little burn and dirt bath not so bad,” he assures them.

Oddly, this seems to make them both feel a bit better.

“But that is story for later. Right now, we must move! Weasel in pain, needs doctor soon as possible,” he declares. Without another word, the tiger stomps closer, grabs Barry and Finnick and yanks them upright.

Barry blinks as loose soil rains down from his clothes and fur, the cub not having expected to be removed so easily.

So much for being grounded.

He’s set down on the ground next to his father so that they can follow the tiger to the waiting helicopter.

Nick takes the precious few seconds he has left with them to surprise them both with a hug. Finnick is shocked by the sudden contact and almost looks like he’s about to attack, but quickly calms down when he processes his brother’s intent.

Within seconds, everyone around Nick is gathered to hug him again. It’s just as nice as the group hug they had yesterday...no, actually...it’s better.

It might just be some lingering dizziness from being choked, but this time, Nick actually feels like he has earned his place in the pile. Everyone else worked to save what they loved, which was usually him.

This time, he didn’t come out unscathed.

He didn’t give up the most, but he still struggled through an ordeal to come out on top. He wasn’t just the guy that everyone else had to save. When he was being strangled, he was the one that got himself free. Hell, if he hadn’t clawed that damn cat when he did, Duke might be dead right now.

It might have been only yesterday, but all his previous troubles seem so far away.

He’s different from who he was.

For once, he didn’t just run, hide or get saved. He might have had to take some lives along the way, but that...that isn’t his fault.

With this revelation, he finally relaxes and lets out the last bit of tension he had been holding in since he killed his first cat.

He feels his family hugging him a bit tighter to fill in the space that his tensed shoulders had been occupying.

He’s vaguely aware of Chadwick standing to the side and waiting for them, silently thankful that the tiger is just letting them have this moment together.

After this hug, he might not see his family for a long time. He wants to cherish every moment of their time together, since he’ll be replaying these memories in his head for the foreseeable future.

“Okay, time’s up! Get your asses into gear!” says a voice from above them. Nick glances up and sees Skye hanging halfway out of the back window. He can see Tyler trying to hold onto her to make sure she doesn’t fall out.

Nick throws her a fake solute. Her brow lifts like she’s about to say something, but her attention is recaptured by the coyote behind her. Her eyes go from stern to sparkling in a split-second.

Well-well.

Someone’s got puppy eyes.

Or maybe she’s just happy to see him.

Either way, he’s saved Nick from her scolding about mocking professional etiquette or something like that.

“Alright, okay, that’s enough now. One of you is on my tail,” Nick urges as he begrudgingly separates from his loved ones. They eventually allow themselves to be pried from their fox.

Barry was thankfully very gentle. Out of all of them, Nick worried about his grip the most. After lifting a van, he doesn’t even want to think about what the cub could accidentally do to his poor bones.

As Nick and Judy separate from the others, he hears something coming from the open bus windows behind them.

They all turn to see what’s up.

They’re met with the sight of dancing lights.

Every mammal in the bus has their paw sticking out of the window with either a lighter or a cell phone held out for their saviors to see.

As one of the phones begins to play the first notes of some kind of rock ballad, the rest of the lights and phones sway with the beat.

Nick is confused, but Judy seems to know the song well enough to squeal over hearing it. Her paws clap together excitedly as she glances between the bus and the others.

As the song goes on, Finnick takes the time to stop his group to listen. It becomes apparent that this isn’t just a random sharing of music.

They’re being thanked.

The living are thanking the undead for what they had to go through just to help out mammals they don’t even know.

There’s some movement further on as the helicopter doors open back up. Chadwick pulls the doors open the rest of the way, revealing Gazelle and Duke to the world. Without a place to lay him down, she has him held in her arms like she’s cradling a kit. 

The weasel is awake.

And from the glistening in his eyes, Nick can tell that being thanked means more to him than probably anybody else right now.

As the words ‘Sweet Victory’ ring out into the clearing, the injured mustelid summons enough strength to lift his good arm and give the survivors a thumbs-up.

The entire bus erupts into applause as they see the fallen weasel accept their gratitude. Duke looks like he’s about to start sobbing. If he had more in him, he might have.

Finnick sees his chance once Duke is moved back into the depths of the chopper. Without asking or warning his son, he lifts the cub’s arm as high as he can.

Being much shorter than the cub, this means he’s just awkwardly standing on the tips of his paws trying to push the arm higher.

Barry gives him a confused look, but goes along with the motion anyway. He’s startled slightly as a massive cheer flies straight at him. Finnick only sits back and smiles. He knows he didn’t help all that much. He got in, what, one shot? Maybe two? That’s nothing compared to Barry throwing a militarized van over the back of his head!

Barry looks a bit nervous, suddenly being the center of attention. It’s like he’s experiencing being celebrated for the first time.

Nick knows how strange a feeling that can be, following any amount of undeserved vindication.

The cub waves to them as he backs up closer and closer to the helicopter. His limits are reached when the same girl from earlier blows him a kiss. In a moment of panic, he reaches next to him and grasps the first arm that isn’t his, which happens to be Marian’s.

Her arm is suddenly lifted for her. The arm Barry lifted just so happened to be the one in possession of her mate, creating a scene of almost comical mayhem.

Corduroy is waved from side to side to the surprisingly appreciative applause of the survivors. Even though the rough motions seem to be making him nauseous, Nick can see the fox grinning from ear to ear. The cheer of an excited crowd must be like music to the ex-coach.

Marian manages to remove her arm from Barry’s grip and returns her mate down to resume snuggling with. She does her best to smile and wave at the mammals yelling out their thanks, but ends up waving to the forest next to the bus.

The cub uses the shift in attention to retreat back into the inside of the helicopter.

Finnick follows him in, laughing in his own special way. That sound brings Nick waaay back to when the fennec first revealed his true self to Judy. That taunting laugh will haunt him for the rest of his life.

Chadwick offers a single wave before ducking back inside his pride and joy. The survivors try to cheer for him but he’s gone by the time they notice him leaving. He probably doesn’t want to be applauded for what he had to do, even if he seemed to have a bloody blast doing it.

Without any more saviors left to cheer on, Nick starts to climb his way back into the cruiser so he can finally get some privacy to spend with his favorite bunny in the world.

“Nick, wait!” Judy suddenly calls out. Nick turns his head but isn’t fast enough to stop his bunny from wrapping herself around his arm and lifting it high into the air.

The fox’s eyes widen at the screams and hollers that are sent out directly at him and Judy.

At first, he doesn’t believe that all that noise...is for them.

But when Judy lifts her own fist into the air, the cheers only grow in volume.

For only the second time in his life…

Nick Wilde is being applauded.

He responds to this with the only thing that happens to pop into his head.

A loud Toot-toot of the cruiser’s horn is barely even enough to overcome the noise coming from the bus as the engine roars back to life. It definitely isn’t enough to drown out the sound of the helicopter chugging into action.

But for him, the exchange of noises between himself and the ones he helped save is plenty.

For him...it feels like he did something worthwhile.


End file.
